PLUMAGE OF YOUNG BIRDS. 37 
VII. 
PLUMAGE OF YOUNG BIRDS. 
T is surprising what odd and variegated costumes 
are sometimes worn by the juvenile members 
of the bird community. Frequently their attire is 
so different from that of their elders that even the 
expert ornithologist may be sorely puzzled to deter- 
mine the category to which they belong; yet there 
are usually some characteristic markings, however 
obscure, by which their places in the avian system 
may be fixed. As a rule, the plumage of young 
birds is more striped and mottled than that of mature 
specimens, Nature playing some odd pranks of color- 
mixing in tiding a bird over from callow infancy to 
full-fledged life. Fashion plates in the world of 
bantlings would be of little account, as no fixed 
patterns are followed. 
Some parts of the growing bird’s plumage change 
to the normal color sooner than others. I remem- 
ber a young male indigo bird that I saw in October, 
whose garb, just after fledging, must have been a 
warm brown almost like that of the adult female ; 
but now he had cast off a part of his infantile robes, 
and put on in their stead the cerulean of his male 
parent ; his tail, rump, and the base of his wings 
