330 BIRDS FROM YEZO, JAPAN—STEJNEGER, 
of which (except across the breast) are white, or whitish; scapulars, 
lower back, rump, outer webs of tertiaries, and edges of quills and pri- 
mary coverts glaucuous to verditer blue; upper tail-coverts narrowly 
tipped with white and marked with a black cuneate shaft streak near 
the tip; tail-feathers white at base; under yee Aiesehe gray. (Thisis 
the plumage described by Sharpe, tom. cit., p. 252, as “adult female.”) 
U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 91379; Henson, No. 1243. 
Young females in the farsi autumn.—No Japanese specimen being at 
hand, I describe this plumage from a young female collected by Blak- 
iston at Canton, China, during November (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 96452; 
Blakist., No. T, 116). Vv ery similar to the adult female, but more bees 
ish above, the rump being quite russet, and more tawny beneath; tips 
of greater upper wing coverts and shorter tertiaries margined with 
pale ochraceous buff. (In the rump of the specimen here described 
there still remains a feather of the nestling plumage, which clearly 
proves the age of the bird.) 
This plumage is retained during the winter months, which the birds 
spend in the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, in spring and autumn 
“passing up and down the coast of China” (they being apparently 
absent on the Philippine Islands). Shortly before their passage north- 
wards the color of the contour feathers is changed (whether by molt or | 
athigasip pais ny, 
LsAegyaiertetited 
independent of a molt I do not know), so that the young birds reach 
Japan in spring ina plumage but slightly different from that of the old 
ones. The young male before finishing the spring change appears to 
be described by Mr. Sharpe (loc. cit.) as “ young male.” 
Young males in the first spring differ from tie old males chiefly in the 
following points: The outer (distal) greater upper wing-coverts have — 
still the ochraceous-buff terminal margins; the edges of quills and pri- — 
mary coverts are still verditer blue; under wing-coverts gray, more or — 
less tinged with fulvous; sides of breast and flanks fulvous gray. (The | 
birds breed in this phunage. U.S. Nat. Mus., Nos. 91813, 88614.) | 
Young females in the first spring are probably not very different from — 
the old ones. I have no specimen that can safely be referred to this | 
category, but [am much inclined tothink that the more fulvous females — | 
alluded to above (flenson’s No. 1402) are really the younger ones, and 
that the light tip margins to the greater wing-coverts disappear varlier | 
inthe females than in the males. 
The breeding season over, the second autumnal molt, which includes | 
both quills and contour feathers takes place, during which the birds — 
assume the full plumage of the old ones, the color of which is never 
materially altered. The old males then in the second autumn and win- 
ter of their life (Henson, No. 102) differ from young spring specimens in- 
having all the upper wing-coverts margined with hyacinth-blue to smalt- 
blue, the quillsedged with “ marine” blue; the under wing-coverts blue 
tipped with white, sides of breast black tinged with blue, and flanks 
white heavily streaked with bluish dusky. 
