308 BIRDS FROM YEZO, JAPAN—-STEJNEGER. 
male killed in February (U.S. Nat. Mus. No. 96218, Nagasaki, Ringer 
coll.) and two males in March (91531, 91559, Tokio, Jouy coll.*) offer no 
differences from the early winter birds it is safe to conclude that speci- 
mens from the intervening months are equally alike. Early April 
specimens are wanting; however, a bird obtained by Mr. Grebnitzki 
on Bering Island, April 50 (U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 106609)t and one by 
Blakiston in Yezo during May (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 96192), as well as 
ten others from Kamtchatka and Bering Island, collected during the 
latter month (Nos. 92682, 88985, 88986, 92683, 92686, 92681, 96606, 
96607, and Stejneger Nos. 1035, 2031), show no trace of change in the 
quill pattern; at least not in the direction supposed by Mx. Sharpe, for 
the northern birds appear to have the dark color on the outer web of 
the last secondary (the one figured as above) more extended towards 
the base. This series is concluded by two birds in full breeding plum- 
age, one (2) shot by myself in Petropaulski, Kamtchatka, June 27, 
1882 (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 89146), the other ( 2) collected by Blakiston 
at Cape Blanco, Yezo, June 23, 1873 (No. 96194), the latter in a very 
abraded plumage, both of which in every essential particular have the 
quills colored in the same manner as the birds in the first plumage 
killed the year previous in July, August, and September. 
We have thus examined a series of forty-three specimens, illustrating 
the pattern of the quills, from the birds leaving the nest until they 
have become a year old and are rearing their own young. This mate- 
rial proves most conclusively that the quills undergo no change what- 
soever in regard to the relative distribution of white and dusky (except, 
of course, the gradual wearing away of the whitish edges during the 
second summer). It is also to be noted, that in this enormous series 
the individual variation is but very slight. ¢ 
The yearly molt of the quills does not take place until about two 
months later than the latest specimen enumerated above, and from these 
months I have no specimen to show. I should therefore have expressed 
myself much more guardedly in regard to a possible change in the col- 
oration of the quills during the last period before the molt, had it not 
been that our collection contains a most interesting specimen which, 
*These two specimens are molting their ‘‘tertiaries,” and the new black feathers 
on the back make their appearance; throat already black in No. 91559. I make this 
statement well aware of the fact that Dr. H. Gitke (Journ. of Orn., 1854, p. 323) 
flatly denies a prenuptial molt in the British White Wagtail. He says: ‘‘Von bei- 
den Arten [ Motacilla lugubris (yarrellii) and Anthus littoralis] habe ich Hunderte von 
Exemplaren in allen Stufen des Ueberganges vom Winter- zum Sommerkleide in 
Hiinden gehabt, nie aber neu hervorkeimende, halb- oder weiter ausgewachsene Federn 
finden kénnen.” However this may be in the European bird, the fact remains that 
in the specimens referred to, most of the black feathers on the back are still in their 
sheaths. 
+ From this time on all the specimens are in full summer plumage; throat black; 
males with back black, females gray. 
{The greater amount of dusky on the proximal secondaries in the Kamchatkan 
spring specimens is possibly a peculiarity of the breeding birds of that country. 
~~ - ‘ 
not 
