124 BULLETIN 16 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the marshes about the mouth of the St. Paul River, Canadian Labra- 

 dor, the female stood on a small rock and crooned, while the young, 

 one after the other, until seven in all, flew and joined her on the rock. 

 Mr. Bent contributes the following note on the behavior of mother 

 and young when the latter are still unable to fly; this was near 

 Hopedale, Labrador: 



We caught one of the young and had an interesting time watching the mother 

 bird in her solicitude. Her boldness was remarkable and she showed no fear 

 whatever ; we could walk right up to within a few feet of her, on the ground 

 or in small trees. We tied the young one with a string and, as soon as the 

 mother heard its peeping notes, she came right up to it, clucking and scolding, 

 with her feathers all ruffled up and her tail spread like a turkey's ; she strutted 

 around over the logs and rocks near us ; her soft clucking notes sounded like 

 kruk, kruk, kruk, with an occasional rolling note like krrrrruk, soft and low. 

 The young evidently understood it as a danger signal, for they remained so 

 well hidden that we found only two of them. While I was photographing the 

 captive little one, the mother came almost near enough to touch and even ran 

 between the legs of the tripod. 



Plumages. — [Author's note : In the small, downy chick the general 

 ground color is yellowish buff, varying from " chamois " above to 

 " colonial buff " below ; there is a black spot at the base of the culmen, 

 a larger one in the middle of the forehead, one on each of the lores, 

 and a broken stripe on the auriculars; there is a large patch of 

 ''hazel," bordered with black, on the crown and occiput; the back 

 and rump are washed with " hazel " and " tawny " and indistinctly 

 spotted with black; the underparts are unmarked. 



The juvenal plumage appears at an early age, beginning with the 

 wings ; these start to grow within the first 5 daj^s and, at the age of 

 10 or 12 days, the wings reach beyond the tail and the young bird can 

 make short flights. By the time the young bird is half grown it is 

 fully feathered. In this juvenal plumage the sexes are alike and 

 resemble the adult female, but are browner above, rustier on the head 

 and neck, and whiter on the chin. The crown is " cinnamon-rufous " 

 or "' hazel," spotted with black; the back, scapulars, and wing coverts 

 are " ochraceous-tawny " or " tawny," boldly patterned with black 

 blotches or bars, and with broad, median, buffy stripes with triangu- 

 lar white tips ; the remiges are sepia, the primaries narrowly notched 

 with buff, the secondaries edged with buff, and the tertials barred 

 and spotted with " ochraceous-tawny " ; the pointed rectrices are 

 " ochraceous-tawny," heavily barred and peppered with black ; the 

 breast is " ochraceous-tawny," spotted with black, the belly grayish 

 or yellowish white, faintly spotted with dusky, and the chin and 

 throat yellowish white. 



Beginning early in August and lasting through September, the 

 postjuvenal molt takes place, during which the sexes begin to differ- 

 entiate, the young males showing patches of black feathers in the 



