28 BULLETIN 197, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



diet. One large larva or from two to four smaller ones were brought at one 

 time so that each trip represented a fairly constant quantity of food. * • • 

 Sometimes one parent did all the feeding but more often the food was divided 

 and both fed, placing all of it in the mouth of one young bird then removing bits 

 which they gave to others. Vei-y rarely did the female eat any of the food brought 

 by her mate. 



After feeding both birds would look expectantly at the nest. When a mass of 

 excreta appeared it was promptly seized and consumed or carried away. In most 

 cases the female secured it but evidently there was some competition between 

 the parents for this privilege. During the last few days of the nesting period 

 excreta were carried off and the nature of its disposal is unknown. 



The six young hatched on July 2 ; the growth of the young was uni- 

 form; on July G pinfeathers were through the skin, and on the 11th 

 the feathers were out of the sheaths. 



They were last seen in the nest in the late afternoon of the 15th. That evening 

 they were out of the nest but nearby. Next morning a hawk was shot near the 

 nest site and was reported to have been attacking young birds. This may account 

 for the fact that but three of the brood were seen on the 17th, with the two 

 parent birds. 



Between July 16 and August 3 the family of three young with one or both 

 parents was often seen about the woodpile and house of a local family about 300 

 yards from the nest site. * * * During the first two weeks out of the nest 

 the young birds seemed to make little effort to find food for themselves but waited 

 until the parent birds brought food and placed it in their mouths. Sometimes the 

 old birds would utter a twittering chirp when food was found, whereupon one 

 or more young would go to the parent to receive it. 



Plumages. — Dr. Dwight (1900) describes the juvenal plumage main- 

 ly as follows : "Above, hair-brown streaked with black, the edgings of 

 the back pale grayish wood-brown, * * * Below, creamy buff, 

 palest anteriorly, streaked on the throat and breast rather broadly 

 and on the sides faintly with clovebrown. Indistinct superciliary 

 line and orbital ring buffy white; auriculars wood-brown." 



An incomplete postjuvenal molt, which involves the contour plum- 

 age but not the wings or the tail, occurs mainly in August. This pro- 

 duces a first-winter plumage, which is practically indistinguishable 

 from that of the adult. Dr. Dwight describes this as similar to the 

 juvenal plumage, but "darker above with less obvious streaking and 

 deeper pinkish buff below, the streaking heavier, forming a pectoral 

 band and extending to the flanks ; an immaculate pale buff chin. The 

 superciliary line extends behind the eye as a whitish band." KidgAvay 

 (1904) says that the young in the first autumn and winter are "similar 

 to winter adults, but upper parts decidedly brown and superciliary 

 stripe and under parts rather deeper brownish buff, with streaks on 

 chest, etc., less sharply defined." 



Dr. Dwight (1900) says that the first nuptial plumage is "acquired 

 by a partial prenuptial moult, in April, involving most of the body 

 plumage which has suffered much from wear and become darker above 



