EASTERN SCREECH OWL 249 



feathers began to show in the white down which soon turned to a dirty gray color. 

 By the time they were twelve days old they had become most repulsive, exceed- 

 ingly filthy to handle with an appearance that was decidedly repellant. Perfect 

 miniatures were they of a doddering, half witted old man; the blue beak was 

 prominent and suggested a large hooked nose, while the down below it took the 

 shape of a full gray beard, and that on the top of the head looked like the gray 

 hair that covers a low, imbecile forehead; the eyes not fully open were bluish in 

 color, and had a bleared and half-blind appearance. This loathsome semblance 

 lasted no longer than ten days by which time the eyes were full and bright and 

 yellow, the bird was covered with a thick gray down, and looked as if a facsimile 

 of it could very easily be made from a bunch of gray wool devoid of any anatomy. 



The above somewhat fanciful but graphic description gives a very 

 good impression of what the young screech owl looks like in its early 

 days. The last stage referred to is what I call the downy juvenal 

 plumage. This secondary down, or, more properly, downy plumage, 

 is acquired before the young bird is half grown and before the flight 

 feathers have burst their sheaths. It replaces the first, or natal, 

 down, the old adhering as white tips on the new. On the upper parts 

 this downy plumage is basally pale "tawny-olive", or "Saccardo's 

 umber", with grayish white tips, and barred with "sepia"; on the 

 under parts it is grayish white and more narrowly barred with paler 

 sepia. During this stage the two color phases begin to be distinguish- 

 able, the gray phase being grayish white and gray and the red phase 

 more generally tinged with "pinkish cinnamon"; this difference be- 

 comes more pronounced as the flight feathers begin to develop. When 

 the bird is about half grown the first winter plumage begins to show, 

 first in the scapulars, then in the wings, and then in the tail; the bird 

 is fully grown and the wings and tail are fully developed before there 

 is much change in the body plumage; the molt of the body plumage 

 occurs in July and August, beginning on the back, followed by the 

 under parts, and lastly including the head. 



This molt produces the first winter plumage, which is much like 

 that of the adult, and is worn through the following spring and until 

 the next summer molt, the first postnuptial. Young birds can be 

 recognized in this plumage by the juvenal wings, tail, and scapulars; 

 the wings lack the white on the outer webs of the primaries, which 

 are broadly barred with "cinnamon" and dusky; and the broad white 

 tips of the greater and median wing coverts and the white outer webs 

 of the scapulars, so prominent in adults, are less pronounced in young 

 birds; red adults have the central pair of rectrices nearly or quite clear 

 red, and gray adults have them mottled; young birds of both phases 

 have the central feathers more or less distinctly barred, and the lateral 

 feathers more heavily barred with dusky. Adults apparently have 

 one complete annual molt late in summer and in fall. 



The screech owl gives us one of the best examples of dichromatism, 

 apparently entirely independent of sex, age, or season, but shown to 



13751—38 17 



