NORTHERN CLIFF SWALLOW 475 



Plumages. — Brewster (1878) has described the juvenal or first 

 plumaije from a male specimen taken at Upton, Maine, July 27, 1874 : 

 "Top of head, back and scapulars dark brown; collar around nape, 

 dull ashy, tinged anteriorly with rusty. Rump as in adult, but paler ; 

 forehead sprinkled with white, and with a few chestnut feathers. 

 Secondaries broadly tipped with ferruginous. Throat white, a few 

 feathers spotted centrally with dusky. Breast and sides ashy, with 

 a rusty suffusion, most pronounced on the latter parts. A very small 

 area of pale chestnut on the cheeks." This plumage is retained by 

 the birds until they have migrated to their winter quarters. 



According to Dwight (1000) the first winter plumage is acquired 

 by a complete postjuvenal molt in the winter habitat. Wlien the 

 birds return the following spring wear is evident in the wings and 

 tail although the resistant metallic feathers show little of it. In this 

 plumage the birds acquire a glossy blue head and back and the rich 

 chestnut of the cliin and rairiculars and a black throat spot. The 

 breast and throat feathers are streaked, and they have a conspicuous 

 crescent on the forehead. 



The first nuptial plumage is acquired by wear. The adult winter 

 plumage is acquired by a complete postnuptial molt in the winter 

 quarters, as was the first winter plumage. This plumage is also 

 similar to the first winter plumage, and the sexes are similar. 



Since the cliff swallow is closely associated with other swallows it 

 is not surprising that occasionally hybrids appear, although it is 

 truh" remarkable that hybridism occurs here in birds not only of 

 different species but also of different genera. Mearns (1902) de- 

 scribes a hybrid between a barn swallow and a cliff swallow taken 

 June 14, 1893, at Fort Hancock, Tex. He found a pair of swallows 

 that were mated and had almost completed a nest attached to a 

 rafter of a barn; the nest was similar to that of the barn swallow, 

 having the entrance at the top. Both birds were shot ; the male was 

 a typical barn swallow, but the female, which was about to lay eggs, 

 was a hybrid between the barn and cliff swallows. The characters 

 were intermediate between those of the two species. Arthur H. Nor- 

 ton informs me that he observed a hybrid between the barn and cliff 

 swallow in a colony near Portland, Maine, in 1883. 



Chapman (1902) describes a very interesting male hj'brid between 

 the cliff and tree swallows taken by Leon C. Holcomb at Springfield, 

 Mass., on August 20, 1902. It was a bird of the year, and in addition 

 to presenting hybridism it also exhibited albinistic characters, though 

 Chapman states this may have been the result of hybridity. In gen- 

 eral this hybrid resembled the tree swallow below and the cliff swal- 

 low above, the rusty and buff markings of the cliff swallow, however, 

 being in this supposed hybrid white. Chapman gives a complete 



