nee 
% 
, 
b: 
bf 
rea PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 309 
in connection with the above series, most satisfactorily completes the 
proof and makes it incontrovertible. 
This specimen, a female, was collected by Capt. Blakiston at Yubutz, 
Yezo, September 15, 1882 (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 96211; Blak., No. 2958), 
and is in full molt all over. The black feathers on top of the head are 
giving way to gray ones tinged with yellow; the anterior portion of 
the back has already assumed the latter color; new white feathers del- 
icately suffused with straw-yellow appear on the throat; several new 
black marginal (smaller) upper wing-coverts have taken the place of 
the gray ones; the tail feathers also are molting, and in the left wing 
the longest “ tertiary” has fallen out. Most interesting is the molt of 
the other quills, inasmuch as all the primaries and all but two of the 
secondaries are new and still partly in the sheaths; the two seconda- 
ries left from the old plumage are the two ones next to the “‘tertiaries,” 
quite brown and faded and with the whitish margins nearly entirely 
worn off, but the extent of terminal dusky and basal white is exactly 
as in the July bird just out of the nest, which we have already figured 
(pl. XLV, fig. 1). In a day or two these feathers would have fallen out, 
and we have thus proof that the first quill pattern remains absolutely 
unchanged until the molt in the second autumn. This demonstrated, 
we will now take a look at the new quills in this bird. Only the six 
inner primaries are nearly fully grown, and of the secondaries only the 
three next to the primaries are so far grown that this pattern can be 
made out. Ina general way they do not differ greatly from the wing 
pattern of the first plumage, except that the dusky portion is blacker 
and less extensive, while the light bases and margins have increased 
in extent and whiteness; the black in the outer web of the primaries 
descends along the shafts nearly to the base. So far as I can make out, 
this pattern is the one which Mr. Sharpe represents in fig. 476. In 
order to give an illustration of the secondary next to the longest “ter- 
tiary” for comparison with my previous figure of the corresponding quill 
in the young bird, I select another specimen, with which the molting 
bird alluded to agrees in every respect as far as the quills already 
grown out are concerned. This specimen is U.S. Mus. No. 96205 (9, 
Tomakoma, Yezo, September 17, 1882, Blak. coll., No. 2959), shot ok 
two days foe than the above female, see probably of an earlier brood, 
inasmuch as the entire molt is finished. PI. Xv, fig. 2, gives a fair 
idea of the distribution of black and white on the inner secondaries in 
this stage of plumage, while fig. 3 illustrates the same on the fifth 
primary. Quite a series of specimens agree closely with this type, 
which we regard as representative of the birds in the second winter 
and third summer, viz: U.S. Nat. Mus., Nos. 96226 (Yezo, September), 
107016 (Nagasaki, December 25), and 96195 (Yezo, April); Henson, No. 
138 (Yezo, April 19); U.S. Nat Mus., Nos. 96196 (Yezo, May 16), 107014 
(Yezo, June 22); 96212 (Yokohama), and 107108 (Nagasaki), the latter 
two, however, without date and sex on the collector’s labels. All these 
