206 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



the outer veins have less of the cinnamon than have the primaries. The feath- 

 ers comprising the wing coverts and tertials have large conspicuous terminal 

 spots of white or light buff. 



I have several young birds in my collection in which the colors are 

 richer and more rufous than those described above; the feathers of 

 the mantle are largely "auburn" and "hazel" and the buffy central 

 streaks and tips are "ochraceous buff. " However, these colors soon 

 fade; in one bird, taken in July, the streaks and spots have all faded 

 out to white and there is no rufous anjrwhere and very little pale 

 buff. This plumage is worn until the middle of winter or later. The 

 molt into the first nuptial plumage begins in January with the acqui- 

 sition of clear brown plumage in the back, varying in color from 

 "bister" to "snuff brown," which gradually replaces the streaked 

 and spotted juvenal plumage; this molt spreads during the spring 

 until the entire mantle, back, scapulars, and wing-coverts, become 

 clear, dark, rich brown, with a purplish or greenish gloss when fresh; 

 the crown becomes much darker, "clove brown"; the streaking be- 

 comes less conspicuous on the sides of the head and neck; and the 

 breast and belly become clearer gray and white, with hardly any 

 signs of streaking; the tail is molted, in April or May, in which the 

 new feathers are clear drab; but the wings are not molted until July 

 or August. There is great individual variation in the time and prog- 

 ress of this prolonged molt. 



Almost continuous with the above molt, beginning in July, or even 

 earlier in some individuals, comes the first complete postnuptial molt. 

 This produces, by September or later, a second winter plumage, in 

 which the crown is glossy, greenish black and the mantle becomes 

 "mouse gray," darkest on the back, with a greenish gloss. During 

 the late winter or early spring, a partial prenuptial molt, involving 

 only the contour plumage, produces a second nuptial plumage, which 

 is nearly adult; but the white space in the forehead is washed with 

 drab, instead of being clear white; the black areas of the crown and 

 back are less brilliantly glossed; the wings are darker and more 

 brownish gray, "mouse gray" or "neutral gray"; and there is much 

 more gray in the neck and breast, "light drab" to "drab-gray." 

 One or two of the long, slender, white occipital plumes are acquired 

 at this time. At the next postnuptial, complete molt, which begins 

 usually in June or July and lasts sometimes until December, the 

 young bird assumes the fully adult plumage, when about 23^ years old. 



Adults have a partial prenuptial molt, in late winter or early spring, 

 and a complete postnuptial molt from August to October. In the 

 spring adult the forehead is pure wliito; the crown, and particularly 

 the back, are brilliantly glossed with green; the wings are "pale 

 mouse gray" or "pallid mouse gray"; and the neck and underparts 



