les PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 307 
dividuals of M. lugens to be due to successive molts of the quills. Mr. 
Rt. Bowdler Sharpe (loc. cit.), on the other hand, seems to maintain that 
the changes between the different patterns of wings take place during 
the time between the molts. And he too bases his conclusions upon a 
study of the series in Blakiston’s collection. It would therefore seem 
as if this series were not quite sufficient to settle the question, and so 
is in fact the case, for, although very complete in autumnal specimens, 
spring birds are comparatively not so well represented. The large 
series of the present species, which I myself collected in Kamchatka, 
on theother hand, contains mostly specimens killed during the month 
of May (cf. “ List of specimens collected,” Res. Ornith. Explor. Kam- 
tschatka, p. 291), supplementing Capt. Blakiston’s collection to a great 
degree. Iam therefore in the position to throw considerable light on 
the subject, and hope to be able to settle a part of this vexed question. 
Before attempting this, however, a few general remarks in regard to 
points which must not be lost sight of during the following discussion 
may not be out of place. It is then to be noted that while the color of 
the small plumage is changed twice a year, the quills and tail-feathers 
are only shed once, viz, in autumn. The last (proximal) three secon- 
daries (or “tertiaries”) form an exception to this rule, inasmuch as they 
are molted twice a year. In speaking of the changes which take place 
at the annual (autumnal) molt of the quills, we do not include any ref- 
erence to the last three, in order not to create any confusion. I will also 
mention that I shall designate the three figures of the wing of M. lugens, 
presented by Mr. Sharpe in the tenth volume of the ‘Catalogue of the 
Birds in the British Museum,” on pp. 475, 476, and 477, as fig. 475, fig. 
476, and fig. 477, respectively. 
Of M. lugens ten specimens in the first plumage are before me, seven 
belonging to Mr. Henson’s collection (Henson’s Nos. 28, 29, 31, 40, 41, 
42,65) and three to Capt. Blakiston’s (Blak., Nos. 1389, 1390, 1561; 
U.S. Nat. Mus.. Nos. 96206, 96207, 96208), the former collected during 
August, the latter during September and July; some are marked as 
male and some as female, but all are essentially alike in regard to the 
distribution of whitish and brownish gray, agreeing minutely with 
Sharpe’s fig. 475. As this figure does not exhibit the inner websof the 
quills, Lappend a sketch of the secondary next tothe longest “tertiary” 
(pl. XLV, fig. 1). Birds which have finished their molt have exactly the 
Same quill pattern, as testified by twelve specimens collected in Septem- 
ber and October (Henson’s No, 328; U.S. Nat. Mus., Nos. 96210, 96212, 
96220, 96227, 96228, 96229, Blak. coll.; 92689, Stejn. coll., all September 
birds, and Henson’s No.335; U.S. Nat. Mus., Nos. 96223, 96224, 107107, 
blak. coll., October). I have, furthermore, four November specimens 
(Henson’s No. 735, Hakodate; U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 96214, Yokohama, 
Owston coll.; 96215, Nagasaki, Ringer coll.; Petersen’s No. 74, Nagas- 
aki) which differin no particular from the figures quoted above. From 
December and January | have no examples, but from the faet that a 
