PLUMAGE OF YOUNG BIRDS. ol 
the autumn. The Maryland yellow-throat does not 
deign to wear his black mask until he is about eight 
months old, and the boy redstart contents himself 
with his mamma’s style of dress until he returns in 
the spring from his sojourn in the south, and does 
not seem to be ashamed to be tied to her apron- 
string. And there is that natty little dandy, the 
ruby-crowned kinglet — it is said, on good authority, 
that he must be two years old before he is entitled 
to wear the ruby gem in his forehead ; which must 
be a sore deprivation for this little aristocrat in 
feathers. Perhaps in kingletdom a bird does not 
become of age until he is two years old. 
Thus it will be seen that the study of ornithology 
is made more difficult, and at the same time more 
interesting, by this change of toilet among the birds,— 
more difficult, because the observer must learn to 
identify the birds in their youthful as well as in their 
adult plumage; and more interesting, because of 
the greater variety thus given to this branch of 
scientific inquiry. 
