The Migration of North American Birds 



299 



FALL MIGRATION 



LOCALITY 



Okanagan Landing, B. C, 



Big Sandy, Mont 



Rupert, Idaho 



Yellowstone Park, Wyo. . 



Beulah, Colo 



Eastend, Sask 



Aweme, Manitoba 



Forestburg, S. Dak 



Onaga, Kans 



St. Vincent, Minn 



Number 



of years' 



record 



14 



3 



22 



3 



Average date of 

 fall departure 



October 6 

 November 13 

 October 17 

 October 14 

 October 28 

 November 2 

 November 21 

 Novcml)cr 13 

 October 14 



Latest date of 

 fall departure 



November 22, 19 iq 

 October 19, 1905 

 November 24, 1909 

 November i, 191 7 

 November 3, 1908 

 October 30, 19 10 

 November 13, 1901 

 December 25, 1905 

 November 27, 1898 

 October 20, 1897 



CASUAL RECORDS 



Mount Carmel, Ills December 4, 1866 



Delavan, Wis April 14, 1910; June 5, 1904 



Freistatt, Mo March i, 1885; November 7, 1886 



Chester, S. C December 9, 1886; December 10, 1886 



Notes on the Plumage of North American Birds 



SIXTY-SECOND PAPER 

 By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See Frontispiece) 



Rusty Blackbird {Euphagus carolinus, Figs. 1-4). The common name of 

 this Blackbird is based on its winter plumage which is broadly tipped with 

 rusty brown, largely concealing the black base of the feathers. 



In nestling plumage the sexes are alike, both being dull slate-color slightly 

 washed with rusty. The postjuvenal (first fall) molt is complete and by it 

 the birds pass into the first winter or 'rusty' plumage. As shown by Figs. 3 

 and 4 the sexes are then superficially alike, but examination shows that the 

 male is blacker than the female. The difference between them becomes more 

 marked as the season advances and the rusty tips gradually wear off, until, 

 in April, the male, without gaining new feathers, has become glossy black 

 (Fig. i), and the female (Fig. 2), slate-color with usually some trace of rusty. 



Brewer Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus, Figs. 5, 6). In Brewer's 

 Blackbird the rusty tips, which so strongly characterize the winter plumage 

 of the Rusty Blackbird, are too small to affect the appearance of the bird 

 in nature, and at all seasons the male, after the postjuvenal molt, appears 

 glossy black with the head and neck much bluer black than in the Rusty 

 Blackbird. 



Even in the winter female the rusty color is not sufficiently pronounced 

 to create a marked difference between winter and summer birds, and at all 

 seasons the female differs from that of the Rusty Blackbird, much as our plate 

 indicates. 



