Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 



FIFTH PAPER 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See frontispiece) 



Arkansas Goldfinch (Figs. 1-3). This species presents marked varia- 

 tions in plumage which the materials at my command do not satisfactorily 

 explain. Males in first winter plumage resemble the female (Fig. 3), but have 

 traces of a black cap and no white in the tail. The prenuptial molt appears 

 to be complete in both the immature and the adult birds, and the former now 

 usually acquires the plumage with a black mottled back shown in Fig. 3. It 

 is probable that the black, or essentially black, back is not acquired until the 

 second prenuptial molt, and it is thereafter retained; although, as has just 

 been said, the adult with the immature, has a complete spring as well as fall 

 molt. 



The Green-backed Goldfinch {Astragali)ius psallria licspcrophiliis, Fig. 4), 

 the western form of this species has the back plain olive-green, and between 

 this and the black-backed race there is a somewhat confusing series of inter- 

 grades, resembling, when adult, immature specimens of the black-backed ])ird 

 {Astragalinus psaltria psaltria). 



Lawrence's Goldfinch (Figs. 5, 6). Lawrence's Goldfinch is almost con- 

 fined to California during the nesting-season, and, like many birds with a 

 limited range, its characters are sharply defined, and it has no near alHes with 

 which, for purposes of identification, comparison is necessary. The juvenal 

 plumage of both sexes resembles that of the adult female, but the breast is 

 sooty gray, with no, or but the faintest, suggestion of yellow; while young 

 males may be known by the greater amount of white in the tail. 



At the postjuvenal molt, the tail-feathers, wing-quills, and primary coverts 

 are retained, while apparently the rest of the wing-feathers and the body 

 plumage is molted. The bird now passes into first winter plumage, which 

 resembles that of the adult, in summer, but in the male the nape and back are 

 decidedly browner, but with more or less greenish yellow concealed at the bases 

 of the feathers, and the hind portion of the black cap is tipped wath brownish; 

 young and adults are now practically indistinguishable. 



There appears to be no spring molt, and the gray, greenish yellow back of 

 the breeding male is acquired by wear and fading. 



The seasonal variations of the female are less pronounced, and there is. 

 little difference in color between summer and winter specimens. 



