VERMILION FLYCATCHER 305 



this time I never saw the niiUe ii(>iirer to the nest than six feet. The almost 

 naked nestlings were salmon-pinkish ; and, as in the case of most newly hatched 

 birds, the eyes were covered with a membrane. On the fourth day this parted in 

 a slit, giving them a comical, half-awake look, while grayish down stood out 

 thickly on the crown and along the back. On the tenth day they were fairly 

 feathered, but remained in the nest until the fourteenth and sixteenth days, when 

 one and two, respectively, fluttered out on untried wings. The father took 

 charge of the one that left home first, while the patient mother fed and coaxed 

 the lazy ones. 



Plumages. — Mrs. Wheelock (1904) describes the almost naked 

 nestlings as salmon-pinkish, with grayish natal down standing out 

 thickly on the crown and along the back. But Mr. Dawson (1923) 

 says that ''the chicks are black for a few days after hatching, with 

 some outcropping of white down." 



The young bird in juvenal, first plumage differs considerably from 

 the adult female; the upper parts are grayish brown, more golden- 

 brown on the rump, and the feathers are margined with pale buff 

 or whitish, giving a scaled appearance; the median and greater wing 

 coverts, the secondaries, and the tertials are margined with pale buff; 

 the outer web of the outer tail feather is pale buff or whitish; the 

 breast and sides of the abdomen are thickly marked with roimded spots 

 of brownish gray, instead of being streaked as in the adult female ; the 

 under parts are otherwise white, tinged with pale yellow posteriorly. 

 This plumage is apparently worn for only a short time, and is 

 evidently replaced by a complete postjuvenal molt early in the fall. 

 I have seen a young male completing this molt on October 27; it has 

 completed the body molt, but is still molting the wings and tail. 



In this, the first winter plumage, the sexes begin to differentiate; 

 young males are like the females at first, but they soon begin to acquire 

 more or less red on the under parts and in the crown; I have seen 

 a series of young males, taken in October, November, December, 

 February, and March, showing the progress of this change. Probably, 

 however, the fully adult plumage is not assumed until the next post- 

 nuptial molt the following summer or fall. Some say that two years 

 are required to assinne the fully adult plumage, but I have been 

 unable to find any young males in spring that still wore the adult 

 female plumage, suff'usod with salmon-pink or orange-red on the 

 posterior under parts. Probably, however, the most brilliantly 

 colored males are the older birds, as there is much individual varia- 

 tion in the intensity of the scarlet. 



I have seen one, apparently adult, male that has a patch of yellow 

 feathers on one side of the breast ; and another has the whole pileum 

 "cadmium orange" to "cadmium yellow", the throat "deep chrome", 

 and the under parts "salmon orange", mixed with "deep chrome". 



