248 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the head, and all under parts are white, faintly washed on the cheeks 

 and upper breast with pale buff; a median stripe on the forehead, 

 reaching only halfway to the bill, a broad loral stripe, and a malar 

 spot are black; there is a black spot in the center of the crown, 

 broken by a few very small white dots, surrounded by " hazel " and 

 bordered with black; a short stripe over the eye and an auricular 

 patch are black and "hazel" mixed; between these and the crown 

 patch there is a broad band of white dots, terminal tufts; the back, 

 rump, wings, and thighs are variegated " hazel " and black, with 

 numerous small white dots, terminal tufts. The bill is broad at 

 the tip. 



Young birds are in ju venal plumage when they reach the United 

 States on the fall migration. They can be distinguished from 

 adults by the buffy edgings above and by the absence of dusky 

 streaks on the throat and upper breast. The feathers of the crown 

 are edged with sandy buff and those of the back and scapulars with 

 " ochraceous buff " or creamy white ; the wing coverts are edged 

 with pale buff; the upper breast is washed with buff and the rest 

 of the under parts are white. This plumage is partially molted 

 during September and October, producing a first winter plumage, 

 which is like the adult winter plumage, except for the ju venal wing- 

 coverts, some scapulars, and a few body feathers, which are retained. 

 At the first prenuptial molt, the next spring, young birds become 

 practically adult. 



Adults have a complete molt from July to November, the body 

 plumage being molted first and the wings last, the latter sometimes 

 not until winter. Their partial prenuptial molt involves the body 

 plumage, sometimes the tail and some wing coverts; it begins in 

 February and lasts into May. The freshly molted spring plumage, 

 in early May, has a " drab-gray " appearance, due to broad drab- 

 gray tips on the feathers of the mantle; these tips soon wear away, 

 revealing the bright colors of the nuptial plumage before the end 

 of May.] 



Food. — I have recorded the following found by me in the stomachs 

 of this species taken on the New England coast; insects of various 

 kinds, including beetles, small mollusks (Littorina), worms and crus- 

 taceans (Gammarus orchestia), bits of seaweed and sand. Dr. Alex- 

 ander Wetmore (1916) records the contents of six stomachs from 

 birds taken in Porto Rico in August; 99.16 per cent was animal mat- 

 ter, 0.84 per cent vegetable matter. 



Beetles, bugs, fly pupae, and small mollusks form the bulk of the food. 

 Small water scavenger beetles (Hydrophiiidae) were found in four stomachs 

 and amount to 27 per cent. Two ground beetles (Bembidium sp.) amount to 

 5 per cent and miscellaneous beetles to 3.34 per cent. One bird had eaten 

 nothing but four back swimmers (Notonecta sp.), and these made 16.66 per 



