336 



BULLETIN 15 3, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The present series exhibits the various plumages and molts of 

 this coly, and inasmuch as but very little has been published on 

 this subject, the following notes may be worth recording. 



The Juvenal plumage is like that of the adult but lacks the blue 

 on the nape, has no bluish or greenish-blue sheen on the feathers 

 of the upper parts, and has dull brownish gray lesser and middle 

 upper wing coverts instead of ashy bluish-gray ones like the adults. 

 The cheeks and auriculars are also slightly more buffy than in adult 

 birds. 



The postjuvenal molt is incomplete, the juvenal remiges and 

 rectrices being unaffected. This molt is very prolonged and year- 

 old birds usually present a rather curious appearance, having some 

 worn, brownish feathers mixed with approximately an equal num- 

 ber of new, bjuish-ashy ones on the back. The body molt is ex- 

 tremely irregular and is unusually difficult to detect as there are 

 no body apteria to render more conspicuous the dropping of patches 

 of feathers. 



In adults, the wing molt usually precedes that of the tail feathers, 

 but occasionally the two overlap. In the case of the remiges, the 

 molt begins at the carpal joint and proceeds in both directions. 

 When only the four outermost primaries remain to be molted and 

 replaced, the outermost and the fourth are dropped more or less 

 simultaneously. The tail molt, as in all colics, is centripetal.* 



