WESTERN TANAGER 471 



marked with irregular specks, spots or blotches of "raw umber," 

 "mummy brown," 'Trout's brown," or "Saccardo's umber." These 

 markings are generally well distributed over the entire egg; even so, 

 there is usually a concentration toward the large end, and often a 

 distinct wreath is formed. On some of the finely speckled eggs the 

 browns are so dark as to appear almost black. The undertones of 

 "brownish drab" or "deep brownish drab" are usually more pro- 

 nounced on the more heavily marked eggs, and entirely lacking on 

 others. 



The measurements of 50 eggs average 22.9 by 16.8 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extreme measure 25.9 by 16.3, 23.0 by 19.1, 

 20.3 by 16.3, and 23.9 by 15.2 millimeters. 



Young. — Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) writes: "Incubation 

 lasts thirteen days, and is performed by the mother bird alone, the 

 male rarely if ever going to the nest until the brood are hatched. As 

 soon as the nestlings are out of the shell, however, he assumes his full 

 share of the labor of feeding them. In the case of one brood at Slip- 

 pery Ford in the Sierra Nevada, the male brought fifteen large insects 

 and countless smaller ones in the half hour between half-past four and 

 five one June morning. During most of the day the trips to the nest 

 with food averaged ten minutes apart. The longest period of fasting 

 was twenty-three minutes, and the shortest one and one-half minutes." 

 The nest was too high up for her to positively identify the food, but 

 she saw the old birds catch insects for them in the air, and thought she 

 recognized caterpillars and dragon-flies in the bills of the parents. 



In a nest containing large young, watched for an hour by Claude T. 

 Barnes (MS.), the male fed the young seven times and the female fed 

 them four times. The longest interval between feedings was ten 

 minutes and the shortest one minute. The food consisted of insects 

 and larvae. 



Plumages. — Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage of 

 the western tanager as "above, yellowish green obscurely streaked. 

 Wings and tail dull black, edged with olive-yellow, forming on the 

 coverts two wing bands. Below, pale yellow with dusky streaks on 

 the breast, similar to the young of other Tanagers." A. D. Du Bois 

 (MS.) describes a small nestling, recently out of the nest, as "con- 

 spicuously marked with buff and blackish about the head, the crown 

 being buff, bordered by broad black stripes." 



The postjuvenal molt, which occurs in July in California, involves 

 the contour plumage and the wing coverts but not the rest of the wings 

 nor the tail. It produces a first winter plumage which differs from the 

 juvenal in being unstreaked and brighter colored. Dwight describes 

 the young male as, "above, olive-3 7 ellow, brownish on the back, the 

 wing bands strongly tinged with lemon-yellow, the one at the tips of 



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