226 BULLETIN 195, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tering was heard, and we saw both parents and the four youug on a nearby 

 sycamore. One baby was caught and banded, but unfortunately 2 days later, 

 we found it dead * * *. 



Every night between 6 : 30 and 7, the parents led the young back to their nest 

 for the night, and the entire proceeding, accompanied by much scolding and 

 fussing, was a most ludicrous and lengthy performance. Not until June 11th, 

 however, did we discover the real difHculty, which lay in the 4-inch overhang 

 of the tile. In order to enter the nest, unless the bird could fly straight in, 

 which the babies evidently could not— it must be reached from the roof tile 

 which formed a hood over the nest, and this necessitated a kind of flying sortie 

 with a quick right-about-face, which the youngsters could not easily accomplish. 

 On June 11th, then, we saw the little family start to retire. They were at the 

 opposite end of the house from their nest when first observed. After a pro- 

 longed in.spection of a nest over the garage which the parents had built, prior 

 to the one eventually occupied, the I'amily started for home, hopping in stately 

 procession across the tiled roof, single file and very sedately. Then after 

 encouraging clucks from the parents, baby number one negotiated the difficult 

 jump to the nest. Not so the second baby — he essayed it three times, missing 

 the hole each time, and being obliged to cling to the house, woodpecker fashion. 

 The fourth time, he caught a long piece of string which dangled from the nest 

 and swung back and forth until one of his parents flew under him, and he 

 crawled to safety over her body, just as the first baby, weary of his lonesome 

 sojourn in the nest, flew out in the world again ! And so it went on, ad infinitum. 



We had several times previously seen the parent bird clinging to the side of 

 the ledge and the babies crawling in over her, but did not realize the significance 

 of this act until this night. The string, too, had given us much concern lest the 

 babies become entangled in it, but now we wondered if it could have been 

 designedly placed there — like a rope ladder. 



Plumages. — [Author's note : The young cactus wren in juvenal 

 plumage is similar to the adult, but the crown is of a duller, darker 

 brown, the light markings of the upper parts are pale brownish buff or 

 rusty white, instead of white, those on the wings being pinkish buff, 

 and the black spots on the throat and chest are smaller and fainter, 

 the throat sometimes almost immaculate; all the markings are less 

 sharply defined. 



The postjuvenal molt, which in some individuals is not finished until 

 September, apparently involves everything but the wings. This pro- 

 duces a first winter plumage that is practically adult, with the light 

 streaks on the back whiter and broader, and the flanks and posterior 

 under parts bright "cinnamon" or "ochraceous-buff," instead of rusty 

 white. 



Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in August and September.] 



Wlien the young cactus wren emerges from the nest, its coloration is 

 similar, though somewhat less sharply defined, to that of the adult 

 except for the absence of the black markings on the throat, which is 

 plain whitish or lightly flecked with darker. The full adult plumage 

 is attained rather suddenly in the early fall, about September. 



It has been conjectured by some that the varying amounts of black 

 on the throats of individual cactus wrens might be related to the age 



