ORNITHOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS 47 



mediate iu color b{jtweeu tlie former and the old birds. This would 

 indicate a gradual darkening- of the first plumage of the young; at 

 any rate, no second moult takes place before the regular prenuptial 

 moult. 



In default of a better opportunity, a curious mistake of Mr. Bureau 

 may be corrected in this connection. He asserts, with the greatest 

 positiveness, that the female oi Lunda cirrhata differs from the male in 

 being destitute of the long, pendant yellow ear-tufts (Bull. Soc. Zool. 

 France, 1879, p. 33). This statement is completely unfounded in^ na- 

 ture, as the female iu external structure and coloration is absolutely 

 indistinguishable from the male. I have seen thousands and thousands 

 of both sexes during the breeding season, and they are all alike; there 

 is not a single untufted adult bird on the rookeries at that period.* 



As the same author seems to believe that the summer and winter 

 plumage of this species are identical (Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1879, pi. 

 iii, fig. 3, which, though having tufts and white mask, is a "restauration" 

 intended to illustrate the winter plumage, and p. 33, where he most 

 positively and most erroneously asserts that the plumage of the adult 

 male in winter is " absolument semblable a celui des noces"), a brief 

 review of the sequence of the different plumages and their coloration 

 may, perhaps, not be out of place. 



In August and September the downy young, still in the nest-holes, 

 become clothed with their first feathers in place of the dark fuliginous 

 down. In this plumage, which is wholly developed before they leave 

 the nest, the upper surface and the under tail-coverts are more or less 

 glossy black ; the sides of the head are blackish gray ; under surface 

 deep ashy on the chin and throat, fading backward into a light gray, 

 the intensity of which differs individually to a considerable extent, 

 darkening, as it appears, during the course of the winter. About the 

 middle of February, earlier or later in the different individuals, accord- 

 ing to the time when they left the Qgg, the first moult of the contour- 



* Mr. Bureau's positiveness about this point is quite illustrative of the usual gen- 

 eralization of many ornithological writers. He had two specimens (apparently with- 

 out authenticated dates) before him, said to be females, which had not the ear-tufts 

 grown fully out (cf. " aiyrettes, dont le point d'implantation est indiqu<^ par unetache 

 jaune paille"). And upon this extremely scanty material he boldly asserts : " Pallas, 

 et, depuis lui, tons les auteurs que ont ^crit sur cette espece, considerent d tort la 

 femelle comme 6tant absolument semblable au m41e et pourvue d'aigrettes." If Mr. 

 Bureau had taken the trouble of raising the feathers of the "tache jaune" he would 

 have found them still in their sheaths, the yellow spot being formed by the tips of 

 the ear-tufts in the progress of deYelopincnt. (Cf, Bureau, 1. c, pp. 33, 34.) 



