LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN PETRELS AND PELICANS. 233 



In the Juvenal or first winter plumage the sexes are practically alike ; 

 the flio-ht feathers of the wings and tail are plain dusky; the belly 

 is dark brown and the breast and neck lighter brown, sometimes pale 

 "cinnamon" on the chest; the upper parts are brownish black with 

 a limited amount of the silver-gray markings so conspicuous in adults 

 on the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts; these markings are more 

 restricted and less brilliant than in adults and are bordered with 

 broAvnish. I have seen young birds, still partially in down, in 

 which these silver-gray markings were well developed. A prenuptial 

 molt occurs during the first spring, which involves part or all of the 

 body plumage, the tail and perhaps also the wings. This molt 

 brings progress toward maturity, but the wings and tail are still 

 plain dusky, lacking the characteristic corrugations of the latter or 

 having them only faintly suggested ; there is an increase in the silver- 

 gray markings of the upper parts and more black appears in the 

 belly, but the head, neck, and chest are still light brown in both sexes. 



At the first postnuptial molt, during the following summer and 

 fall, a plumage approaching the adult is assumed and the sexes be- 

 come differentiated. This is a complete molt at which the adult 

 wings and tail are assumed and at which the male acquires the black 

 chest, neck, and head; but signs of inmiaturity still remain in the 

 shape of scattering brown feathers, which give the head and neck of 

 the young male a mottled appearance. The fully adult plumage is 

 not completed until the following spring, when the young bird is 

 nearl}' two years old. 



The adult winter plumage is similar to the adult nuptial plumage, 

 except that the scattering light-colored plumes of the head and neck 

 are lacking, also the elongated dark mane of the hind-neck. The 

 prenuptial molt is nearly complete; the tail is molted in April, be- 

 ginning with the central rectrices; I have seen birds in early sum- 

 mer which had apparently fresh remiges, but I have never seen them 

 actually molting these feathers in the spring. The postnuptial molt 

 is probably complete, though I have not full}^ traced it and can not 

 say just when it occurs. 



Food. — Audubon (1840) found in the stomachs of this species 

 '• fishes of various kinds, a(iuatic insects, crays, leeches, shrimps, tad- 

 poles, eggs of frogs, Avater-lizards, young alligators, water-snakes, 

 and small terrapins," certainly a varied bill of fare. He also relates 

 the following incident to illustrate its voracit}^ : 



One morning Doctor Baclunan and I gave to an anhlnga a black fish, 

 measuring nine and a half inches by two inches in diameter; and although 

 the head of the fish was considerably larger than its body, and its strong and 

 spinous tins appeared formidable, the bird, which was then about seven 

 months old, swallowed it entire, head foremost. It was in appearance digested 

 in an hour and a half, when the bird swallowed three others of somewhat 



