BULLOCK'S ORIOLE 273 



head and back. For nearly a week after they are feathered the down waves 

 rakishly on either side of the crown and about the shoulders, gradually wearing 

 off as they brush about through the bushes. 



Like all oriole babies, these demand the constant attention of both parents, 

 crying loudly for more the moment their mouths are emptied of the last mouthful, 

 not in the least trying to help themselves, but following the adults about for a 

 week or two after leaving the nest. * * * I believe the families usually keep 

 together until late in August, when the males join flocks of their own sex for the 

 September migration southward. 



Plumages. — The natal down of Bullock's oriole is white, long, and 

 rather scanty. The sexes are practically alike in the juvenal plumage, 

 though the female is usually rather paler; this plumage closely re- 

 sembles that of the adult female, grayish olive above with yellowish 

 olive tail and wing coverts and dull buffy whitish below; but there is 

 no black on the throat or wings, and no orange on the head and neck. 

 A postjuvenal molt occurs in late ^'summer, involving the contour 

 plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings nor the 

 tail; this produces the first winter plumage, in which the young male 

 acquires black lores and a narrowly black throat, but which is other- 

 wise like the plumage of the adult female; young birds may breed in 

 this plumage. At the first complete postnuptial molt, the following 

 summer, the adult winter plumage is acquired; this is like the adult 

 spring plumage, but in the male the feathers of the back and under 

 parts are margined with gray. Adults have a complete postnuptial 

 molt in summer, but apparently no spring molt, the spring plumage 

 being acquired by wear. 



At my request, James L. Peters examined the large series of Bullock's 

 orioles in the Museum of Comparative Zoology and has sent me his 

 report, from which I gather the following additional information: 

 The postjuvenal molt begins about the middle of August and is com- 

 pleted by about the middle of September. The amount of black 

 acquired in the throat and lores at this molt seems to vary considerably 

 and the time at which it is acquired also varies. Two males, taken 

 September 16 and October 10, both lack it; two males, taken October 

 7 and 11, have whitish lores and throat patches of scattered black 

 feathers; but a male, taken October 6, has fully developed black lores 

 and throat patch. He says that the first prenuptial molt of the male 

 varies greatly; "in some individuals new black feathers with olive 

 edges appear on the crown; sometimes only half a dozen such are to be 

 found; in others the crown is entirely covered; the first traces may 

 appear by the end of January. Some individuals acquire new scapu- 

 lars and interscapulars between the end of January and the end of 

 March, but not over half of those examined did so." 



The sequence of molts in the female is similar to that of the male. 

 There is considerable individual variation in the amount of black 



