172 BULLETIN 2 08, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



body, under tail-coverts, and under wing-coverts white, somewhat 

 tinged with pale grayish buffy; iris brown, eyelids grayish brown; 

 bill blackish, often with a pinkish tip, tarsi and toes bluish gray, 

 the undersurface of the toes sometimes pinkish. The remiges and 

 rectrices in this plumage are somewhat narrower, more pointed 

 terminally, than in the fully adult plumage. 



The postjuvenal molt is incomplete, as it does not involve the 

 remiges and rectrices. ^^ This makes it possible to distinguish the 

 first adult plumage from subsequent ones. Also, frequently, the 

 chin and thi'oat retain some of the yellow juvenal feathers in varying 

 amounts. The first adult plumage is worn but a short time when the 

 old, juvenal remiges and rectrices are replaced. The wing molt 

 appears to antecede slightly the caudal ecdysis and seems to have but 

 one center of origin, the carpal joint. The margins of the juvenal 

 upper wing-coverts, scapulars, and interscapulars become extremely 

 faded by the time the postjuvenal molt begins, being much tawnier, 

 more sandy, less olivaceous than when fresh. The molt appears to 

 begin rather irregularly in the scapulars and interscapulars, then starts 

 on the chin and tliroat, and the upper wing-coverts and tail-coverts. 

 The upper tail-coverts are all replaced and the new ones full grown 

 before the upper wing-coverts are through molting. The last areas 

 to molt are the forehead and crown. Verheyen (1953, pp. 117, 131) 

 records that the rectrices are shed and replaced two pairs at a time, 

 starting with the median two pairs. He finds that the wing molt 

 begins during the egg-laying season. 



This species is remarkably uniform throughout its vast range; no 

 subspecies are recognizable. I have examined over 1,100 specimens 

 from all parts of the range in the collections of the museums of Europe, 

 America, and Africa. 



Native Names 



I have noted the following native names for this species recorded in 

 scattered places in the literature. The list makes no pretense to 

 completeness, and in all such compilations of transcriptions it should be 

 kept in mind that there is always the possibility that the original 

 recorders either may have misunderstood what the natives were 

 telling them or may have misidentified the bird to which a particular 

 name may apply. The names are listed alphabetically for ready 

 reference. 



" Verheyen (1953, p. 123) states that in the postjuvenal molt the fourth and 

 fifth pairs of primaries are replaced. I have seen no evidence of this. 



