20 Bird - Lore 



or brownish green, yellower below and more or less obscurely streaked; the 

 wings and tail are fuscous, and the former have two well-pronounced yellowish 

 bars, a diagnostic mark of this species in any plumage. 



At the postjuvenal, or first fall molt, all but the tail and larger wing-feathers 

 are shed and a new plumage acquired which resembles that of the adult female 

 (Fig. 6), but has the rump and underparts somewhat yellower. 



This plumage bears a strong resemblance to that of a female Scarlet Tanager, 

 but the dusky back (instead of uniform olive-green) and pronounced wing- 

 bars of the western bird serve to identify it. Still a Western Tanager seen in the 

 eastern United States could easily be mistaken for the Scarlet Tanager. (I 

 was surprised when preparing these notes, in the National Museum at Washing- 

 ton, to find a female Western Tanager labeled, "Highland Falls, N. Y. & juv., 

 Dec. 21, 1 88 1, Edgar A. Mearns." The identification was a tribute to the 

 acuteness of the ornithologist who as a boy had taken this western species, at 

 his home near West Point, a capture which I subsequently recalled having seen 

 recorded.) 



At the spring or postnuptial molt practically all the plumage is molted 

 except the tail, primaries, and secondaries, and the bird acquires a costume 

 much like that of the adult male in our plate. The back, however, is duller and 

 shows some of the feathers of the winter dress, while the new feathers are tipped 

 with olive, the head has less red, and the old wing and tail-feathers are brownish. 



After the breeding-season (postnuptial molt) this plumage is completely 

 molted and the bird goes into adult winter plumage. This resembles that of 

 the adult in summer (Fig. 5), but the head is yellow washed with dusky, 

 without, or with but a trace of red, the back is edged with greenish, and, the 

 tertials are tipped with yellowish. 



At the second spring molt only the wings and tail are retained, and the 

 bird passes into adult breeding plumage, which is not gained, therefore, until 

 its second year. 



The plumage of the female presents but little change with age, sex or 

 season, but some adults in summer have more or less red on the anterior parts 

 of the head. 



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