NORTH AMEEICAN MAESH BIRDS 189 



Plumages. — [Author's note: The downy young green heron is 

 scantily covered with "drab" down, thickest on the back and 

 longest on the crown; the color varies to light gray on the under 

 parts and to "hair brown" on the crown. The juvenal plumage is 

 acquired in the usual heron sequence and is complete before the 

 young bird reaches the flight stage, when fully grown. 



The sexes are distinguishable even in the juvenal plumage. In 

 the young male, in August, the crown is solid, glossy, greenish black; 

 the sides of the head and neck are solid "chestnut"; the chin, throat, 

 and neck stripe are yellowish white, spotted with black; the back is 

 solid, glossy, dark green; the wing coverts are the same color as the 

 back, but the lesser coverts are edged with chestnut and the me- 

 dian and greater coverts are rounded (not pointed, as in the 

 adult), edged with pale buff and have a triangular buffy white spot 

 at the tip of each feather; these spots soon fade out to white and 

 then wear away; the remiges and rectrices are glossy, greenish black; 

 the secondaries and primaries are tipped with white in decreasing 

 amounts from the inner to the outer; the under parts are buffy 

 white, streaked with dusky. The young female differs from the 

 juvenal male in having chestnut streaks in the crown and having the 

 sides of the head and neck streaked with chestnut, buff, and dusky. 



The juvenal plumage is worn during the fall and earl}^ winter, 

 without much change until the partial prenuptial molt begins in 

 February; this involves mainly the head, neck, and body plumage, 

 which, by May, is much like the adult plumage, except that there 

 is more white in the chin, throat, and under parts, with more broad, 

 dusky stripes in the fresh plumage of the lower neck and upper 

 breast than in the adult; some new, fresh back plumes, scapulars, 

 and wing coverts, similar to those of the adult, are acquired at this 

 molt; but the flight feathers are old and worn and some of the 

 juvenal wing coverts are retained. The complete postnuptial molt 

 begins earlier in young birds than in adults ; I have seen a young 

 bird molting its primaries as early as April first; at this molt, when 

 the young bird is but little over a year old, the adult plumage is as- 

 sumed. The adult wing is easily recognized by the coverts; the 

 lesser coverts are narrowly edged with rufous buff and the median 

 and greater coverts are pointed (not rounded as in the juvenal) and 

 narrowly edged with pale buff; only the inner primaries and the 

 secondaries are very narrowly tipped with white. 



Adults apparently have a partial prenuptial molt in late winter 

 and early spring and a complete postnuptial molt from July to No- 

 vember. I have seen an adult male molting its primaries as late 

 as January 16, which suggests the possibility of a complete prenup- 

 tial molt, but this may be only a case of delayed molt. There is 

 very little seasonal difference in adult plumages.] 

 92642— 26t 14 



