LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER 119 



is buffy white, and the throat and breast are " ochraceous tawny," 

 becoming lighter and grayer on the belly. The upper parts are much 

 like those of the snipe, variegated, or marbled, with black, " chest- 

 nut," and " umber brown," and spotted with small round white spots, 

 terminal tufts, which are very thick on the wings and form roughly 

 two rows down the back and two rows on each thigh. 



In fresh juvenal plumage in July in Alaska, the crown, back, and 

 scapulars are black, broadly edged with " cinnamon rufous " or 

 " hazel " ; the throat, breast, and flanks are gray, the feathers broadly 

 tipped with " ochraceous tawny " and streaked with black or spotted 

 with dusky; the tertials, innermost greater coverts, and the median 

 coverts are edged with " cinnamon buff." These edgings are much 

 browner in scolopaceus and paler buff in griseus. 



A postj u venal molt, beginning in September and lasting until De- 

 cember or later, involves a change of the body plumage, sometimes 

 the tail and some of the wing coverts and scapulars. This produces 

 the first winter plumage, which is like the adult winter plumage, 

 except for the retained juvenal scapulars, tertials, and wing coverts. 

 The first prenuptial molt is limited to a few scattering feathers in 

 the body plumage, above and below, some of the scapulars and wing 

 coverts, and the tail; these are like corresponding spring feathers of 

 the adult. There is considerable individual variation in the amount 

 of new feathers in this first nuptial plumage. I have seen birds in 

 this plumage from March 28 to September 9. They do not go north 

 to breed, but remain in the South during the summer. At the first 

 postnuptial molt, in August, they assume the adult winter plumage. 

 In some young birds the prenuptial molt seems to be omitted and the 

 postnuptial molt seems to be a change from one winter plumage to 

 another. 



Adults have a partial prenuptial molt from February to May, in- 

 volving all the body plumage, most of the scapulars, some of the 

 tertials, the central pair of rectrices and the wing coverts. I have 

 seen adults in full nuptial plumage as early as March 4 and as late 

 as August 21. July and August birds are very black above, due to 

 the wearing away of the buff edgings. There is much individual 

 variation in the extent and intensity of the rufous and in the amount 

 of black spotting on the breast. The complete postnuptial molt of 

 adults begins in August and is often finished in September. I have 

 seen several birds in which the primaries were being completely re- 

 newed during both months. 



Food. — Preble and McAtee (1923) give the following report on 

 the contents of two stomachs of long-billed dowitchers : 



Two stomachs, of the two specimens last mentioned from St. Paul Island, 

 have been examined and their contents were almost exclusively the larvae of 

 midges (Chironomidae), of which there were more than 75 in one gizzard and 



