THE OSPREY. 



103 



feathers mixed with the black. In an adult 

 female the outlines of the cheek-patch can be 

 plainly seen." 



Dr. J, A. Allen, in the Bulletin of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. Vol. iv. No. 1, has 

 fairly stated the case, and I cannot do better 

 than quote his words. He says, on p. 21, 

 "there are occasionally indications of a malar 

 stripe in the [adult] female. This, however, is 

 very rare in C. auratus and C. chrysoides, but 

 common in the C. rater group, and the rule in 

 C. mexicanoides, where the exceptions are rare 

 When present in the female it differs greatl) 

 from the correspond ing mark in the male. In 

 C. auratus a very small percentage of the 

 females have the area occupied by the malar 

 stripe in the male faintly tinged with grayish, 

 the basal portions of the feathers being dusky 

 and showing slightly at the surface. In one 

 specimen (No. 8308, ad.. Coll. Wm. Brewstei . 

 from Ann Arbor. Michigan, the feathers of the 

 malar area are distinctly black beneath the sur- 

 face, the black extending quite to the tip- ol 

 the feathers, forming a well-marked incipient 

 malar stripe. This is. however, an extreme 

 case, and almost unique. In another specimen, 

 also from Michigan (Ypsilanti, No. 8306, ad., 

 Coll. Wm. Brewster), a few of the feathers of 

 the malar region are tipped with black and 

 many others with red, giving rise to a very 

 narrow red malar stripe slightly mixed with 

 black. Otherwise the bird i- a normal example 

 of C. auratus." tin p. 44. he say-: "A feature 

 of special interest in respect to the young in 

 nesting plumage is the variable status of the 

 malar stripe, considered a- a secondary sexual 

 character. In I '. auratus both sexes have tin- 

 black malar stripe, which in adult bird- is con- 

 fined to the male. In 30 specimens, r; 

 age from half-grown nestlings to full-fledged 

 birds, not our lacks the /'lark malar stripe, while 

 five of these are recorded as females by their 

 respective collectors from anatomical examina- 

 tion of the specimens, ami at tent ion i- called on 

 the label, to the presence of the malar stripe. 

 While most of the other specimens are mar 

 as males, it is quite certain that they were tints 

 marked on the presumption that a black malar 

 stripe denoted a male in the young a- well as in 

 the adult." 



Mr. Wm. Brewster ha- a brief note on this 



subject in his very interesting paper on a br 1 



of young Flickers. (Auk. Vol. x, 1893, p. 235). 

 He says, "at 6 o'clock of the evening of the 9th, 

 I looked into the nest ami counted all five ol the 

 young. They seemed to be fully grown and 

 perfectly feathered. They wet. colored pre- 

 cisely alike, as far as I could see. and all had the 

 black moustache a- extensive, deeply colored 

 and conspicuous, as in mature male- of their 

 species." Some ten families of young that I 

 have seen or of which I have received positive 

 evidence agree with Mr. Brewster's statement; 

 all had black stripes. 



The use of the word 'moustache' in the above 

 and various other accounts of these bird- seems 



t' i me b i be mi-placed as the black patch is below 

 the mouth, and not as the word is ordinarily 

 used situated on that part which corresponds to 

 the upper lip of mammals: malar stripe would 

 seem t< > be a more appropriate term. 



The facts in the case, as far as I have been 

 able to collect them, show that all immature 

 Yellow-shafted Flickers of both sexes up to the 

 molt of the mesoptile feathers have a black 

 malar -tripe on each side of the face, the sexes 

 'in. precisely alike except that those having 

 the most red scattered on the head and neck are 

 usually, perh aj is always, males. After the young 

 i full -ize. in the course of a few months 

 (aboul Washington thi- is late in August or 

 early in Septi mbi i they molt a/I feathers, and 

 rapidly acquire their next, the ,-. '-called 'winter' — 

 really the first teleoptile plumage. In the course 

 of thi- molt the black malar feathers of female 

 birds are replaced by reddish-gray feathers 

 almost precisely of the same color as the sur- 

 rounding parts. This is well shown in a num- 

 ber of specimens that I have examined, and es- 

 llv in one taken at Kensington, Maryland, 

 September 16, 1893, (Coll. W. P.. No. 3602). In 

 thi- specimen (Fig. 3), which is about three- 

 tout th- changed into the teleoptile plurnage, the 

 malar stripe is about half black and half red- 

 dish-gray, the new feather- being of precisely 

 tit.- -.line ci .1.. rat ion as the surrounding feathers, 

 and are larger than the older mesoptile ones 

 which they are displacing. 



The molting is irregular, occurring- in spots 

 all over the malar region, but evidently more 

 nearly complete on the anterior portion. On 

 such a -mall place the change i- probably rapid, 

 thus preventing the collecting of many speci- 

 mens showing the progressive change. 



M\ series of specimens -how- very well the 

 change in these young birds on molting the 

 in.--. >p1 ile feathers. 



First, the teleoptile- appear on the inter- 

 scapular- and breast spreading rapidly down- 

 ward.-, and ..\er the neck and head. Before the 

 mesoptile feather- are two-thirds replaced, the 

 flight feathers begin to change; some of the 

 inner primaries alternately grow first, the 

 growth advancing irregularly to the outer pri- 

 mary. Two or three pair of the outer rectrices 

 .but not the short outermost) first obtain their 

 full growth, the movement advancing toward the 

 central pair which are not changed until the 

 others are fully mature and effective for good 

 use, the usual mode in the Woodpeckers. The 

 malar feathers are replaced while the head and 

 neck are changing. The last feathers to change 

 are the less perfed feathers, the semiplumes of 

 the rump and the underbody, the lightest 

 colon-. 1 ami the least important, for the time, 

 the coverts, tertials and secondaries. The 

 mesoptile* plumage of these birds is much 

 darker than the teleoptile, the black spotting of 

 the breas! being more numerous, and the dorsal 

 barring being- broader and more blotchy. I The 

 -potting of the secondaries is much browner, 

 and these feathers lack the terminal pale edg- 



Palmer. The Avifauna of the Pribylot Islands, p. 124 Vol, iii, The Fur Seals anil Fur-Seal Islands of the North 

 Pacific OceaD. 1899. 



-iThe mesoptile interscapulars have one broad black liar while the teleoptile feathers from the same place have two 

 narrower bars. 



