322 BIRDS FROM YEZO, JAPAN—STEJNEGER. 
men. Mr. Jouy secured a breeding male not yet in full plumage on Fuji- 
Yama, and he and Mr. Smith collected two young males at Chiusenji 
Lake. Mr. Henson has been more fortunate, for he has placed before 
me not less than twelve specimens from Hakodate, viz, four fully adult 
males, one male in the second spring, one male in the first autumn, and 
six females. The dates and numbers of these specimens will be found 
in the subjoined table of dimensions. 
The specimen which I take to be a young female of the previous year 
(No, 1405), because it has quite distinet tawny terminal edges to the 
ereater wing-coverts, is similar to the young males in the first autumn, 
except that there is hardly any blue on the upper parts, which, besides, 
are more tawny. The tail also is dull russet olive above, but a few of 
the upper tail-coverts are strongly suffused with dull indigo. These 
feathers are only seattered and placed asymmetrically, and as they do 
not seem to have been molted very recently, I suppose that they have 
erown out to replace feathers accidentally lost. It may therefore be 
that in the first spring the females assume the blue rump by actual 
molt. It is possible, however, that the blue is assumed without a molt, 
and I may mention that in the other female specimens before me there 
is a great amount of individual variation in regard to the extent and 
intensity of the blue color. All these I take to be fully adult birds 
which have passed the molt of the second autumn, as the wing coverts 
are quite uniform without any trace of tawny tips. In No. 1401 the 
blue mark is rather strong, but confined to the lower rump, upper tail- 
coverts, and upper side of tail, contrasting strongly with the olive of 
the back. No. 1392 is quite similar, but on upper tail-coverts and tail 
the olive is much more pronounced. In Nos. 1482 and 1490 the blue is 
much paler, and it contrasts much less with the back, which is also 
slightly suffused with a faint tinge of indigo, which in the latter is 
quite pronounced on some of the wing-coverts. Finally, No. 1488 has no 
distinct blue in its plumage, the upper tail-coverts being, in fact, strongly 
marked with tawny. Yet its perfectly biack bill and .the uniformly 
colored wing-coverts, as well as the absence of well-marked dusky 
sealing on the lower parts, prove it to be an old bird. Generally speak- 
ing, these adult females may be said to resemble the young males as 
described by Capt. Blakiston, but with the blue color more restricted 
and less extensive, with the buffy mark on the lower parts less bright, 
and with the dusky margins to the jugular feathers less distinct. 
It appears that in the first spring, that is, when a little less than a 
year old, the young males assume the blue plumage of the old male. 
The quills not being shed at this molt remain as in the young plumage 
until the following autumn, the tawny marginal tips of the great coverts 
being very conspicuous by contrast. In this transition plumage they 
undoubtedly breed, for the breeding bird which Mr. Jouy collected at 
Fuji, July 14, 1882 (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 91457), is in this stage. The 
wings are very much abraded and the tawny tips to the great wing- 
