178 BREWSTER'S Descriptions of the First Plumage 



88. Empidonax minimus. 

 First plumage: male. Similar to the adult, but with a Btronger olive 

 cast, and a faintly indicated collar of ashy-brown across the nape. Wing- 

 bands light reddish-brown. Beneath almost precisely similar to the adult, 

 with perhaps a Blightly stronger yellowish cast upon the abdomen and 

 crissum. Distinguishable from E. trailli and E. ocadicus in corresponding 

 by the decidedly paler and less yellowish under part- ; especially 

 by the nearly clear ashy on the sides of the breast. Prom a specimen in 

 my collection taken at Cambridge, Mass., July 2, 1872. I >ther specimens 

 in fir-t plumage before me differ little from the one above described, but 

 autumnal specimens, singularly enough, are much yellower below and 

 more olivaceous above. 



89. Empidonax flaviventris. 



First plumage : male. Above uniform yellowish-olive. Beneath dull 

 yellow, with a brownish cast, tinged strongly with olive upon tin- throat, 

 breast, and sides. Wing-bands brownish-yellow. Altogether very similar 

 in general appearance to the adult. From a specimen in my collection 

 shot at Upton, Me., August 4, 1874. 



90. Chordeiles virginianua. 



First plumage. Above dull black, irregularly marbled everywhere with 

 reddish fawn-color and pale rusty. All the feathers are tipped, edged, and 

 barred with the lighter colors, the black appearing for the most part in 

 subterminal spots or blotches. The primaries (which are but just sprout- 

 ing) are black, broadly tipped with pale rusty. Under parts clothed 

 thickly with fluffy whitish down, beneath which, on the breast and sides, 

 true feathers of a dull white barred with dark brown are beginning to 

 appear. From a specimen in the cabinet of Mr. N. C. Brown, taken at 

 Deering, Me., June 29, 1875. It seems probable that young of this species 

 — and perhaps of the whole family, like those of the Tetraonida and some 

 others — pass through a stage of plumage previous to the usual primal 

 one. The specimen above described is, strictly speaking, in process of 

 transition between the two, and still retains patches of the jofi whitish 

 down which must have constituted its entire covering at an earlier period. 



91. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus. 

 First plumage: female. Above lustrous plumbeous-ashy, feathers upon 

 the crown, nape, and anterior pari of the hark, narrowly tipped with pale 

 ashy ; those of the interscapular region and rump, together with the scap- 

 ular- and upper tail-coverts, more broadly so with ashy-white. Outer edges 

 of quills light rufous. Beneath delicate pearl-gray, lightest on the abdo- 

 men, Blightly tinged with pile brownish-yellow on the throal and breast. 

 From a specimen in my collection shot in Lincoln, Mass., June 17. L87L 

 Autumnal specimens (probably only the young birds) differ from spring 

 adults in having the naked skin around tin- eye yellow instead of red. 



