Notes on the Plumage of North American Birds 



FIFTY-FIRST PAPER 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See Frontispiece) 



American Magpie {Pica pica liudsonia, Figs. 1,2). The male and female 

 Magpie are alike in plumage, and the young bird when it leaves the nest differs 

 in color from its parents only in having all the black areas dull instead of glossy, 

 the white scapular patches tinged with buffy, and more or less white showing 

 through the black feathers of the throat and breast. The wing- and tail-quills, 

 while not fully grown, resemble those of the adult, and at the postjuvenal molt 

 these feathers alone are retained, while those of the body are shed. The young 

 bird is now indistinguishable in color from the adult. There is no spring molt, 

 and summer plumage closely resembles that of winter. The postnuptial molt, 

 as usual, is complete but produces no change in appearance. 



The plumage and plumage changes of the Magpie are therefore as simple as 

 are those of anv other bird. 



Bird-Lore's Nineteenth Christmas Bird Census 



BIRD-LORE'S Annual Bird Census will be taken as usual on Christmas 

 Day, or as near that date as circumstances will permit; in no case should 

 it be earlier than December 22 or later than the 28>th — in the Rocky 

 Mountains and westward, December 20 to 26. Without wishing to appear un- 

 grateful to those contributors who have assisted in making the Census so remark- 

 ably successful, lack of space compels us to ask each census taker to send only 

 one census. Furthermore, much as we should like to print all the records sent, 

 the number received has grown so large that we shall have to exclude those that 

 do not appear to give a fair representation of the winter bird-life of the locality 

 in which they were made. Lists of the comparatively few species that come to 

 feeding-stations and those seen on walks of but an hour or two are usually very 

 far from representative. A census-walk should last four hours at the very least, 

 and an all-day one is far preferable, as one can then cover more of the different 

 types of country in his vicinity, and thus secure a list more indicative of the 

 birds present. Each report must cover 07ie day only, that all the censuses may 

 be more comparable. 



Bird clubs taking part are requested to compile the various lists obtained by 

 their members and send the result as one census, with a statement of the number 

 of separate ones it embraces. It should be signed by all the observers who have 

 contributed to it. When two or more names are signed to a report, it should 

 be stated whether the workers hunted together or separately. Only censuses 



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