WESTERN BLUEBIRD 269 



visiting the garden every few days until it is time to leave for a warmer 

 climate. The young of the first family are fed aDd cared for while 

 the second clutch of eggs is being incubated." 



Plumages. — The sequence of plumages and molts evidently parallels 

 that of the eastern bluebird. The adults of the two species are more 

 unlike than are the juvenals. In the western bluebird the sexes are 

 distinguishable in the juvenal plumage. In the young male the head 

 and neck are plain sooty gray, the interscapular region is from "Verona 

 brown" to "olive-brown," conspicuously streaked with white, and the 

 rump, upper tail coverts, and the lesser and median wing coverts are 

 dull slate color; the breast and sides are "warm sepia," heavily streaked 

 or spotted with white; the wings and tail are much like those of the 

 adult female, but the blue is brighter and the tertials are margined 

 with pale grayish brown. The young female is similar to the young 

 male, but all the colors are paler and duller, and the breast is more 

 heavily streaked with white. Ridgway 's (1907) account indicates 

 that only the young female has the interscapular region streaked with 

 white, but all the young birds in the considerable series of both sexes 

 that I have examined are so streaked, and Dawson's (1923) account 

 agrees with my findings. 



The postjuvenal molt begins early in July in some birds and not 

 until the middle of August in others, this probably depending on the 

 date of hatching. This produces the first winter plumage, in which 

 young birds become very much like the winter adults of the respective 

 sexes. Ridgway (1907) says of the young male at this season: 

 "Similar to the adult male in winter plumage, but the blue lighter and 

 less violaceous and (except on rump, upper tail-coverts, rectrices, and 

 remiges) duller, the feathers of pileum and dorsal region more broadly 

 tipped with grayish brown; chestnut of under parts rather lighter, the 

 feathers with paler tips." The first winter female differs from the 

 adult winter female in about the same way. 



There is apparently no spring molt, but the grayish-brown edgings 

 have worn away, giving a brighter appearance; first-year birds can 

 then be distinguished from adults by the juvenal wings and tails, 

 which have been retained through the winter. 



One-year-old young birds and adults have a complete postnuptial 

 molt in August and September, at which old and young become in- 

 distinguishable. Ridgway (1907) says that, after this molt, the blue 

 of the upper parts of the male is "slightly obscured by narrow brownish 

 tips to the feathers, and that of the chest and breast by pale grayish 

 brown tips." These tips wear away during winter, producing the full 

 spring brilliancy. Of the adult winter female, he says: "Similar to the 

 spring and summer plumage, but brighter in color, the pileum and 



