vO. xv, PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAI, MUSEUM. 351 
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year, and, in fact, the only young bird in the lot seems to be the male 
in full glossy plumage with but a few feathers left of the brown plumage 
“(specimen OC; tom. cit., p. 120). 
Henson’s No. 115 is perhaps even more convincing and interesting. 
The former specimen (No. 52) is marked ¢, the present one ?, and 
both are, beyond a doubt, young birds of exactly the same age. The 
_female is less brown on the back, the head is grayer, and the streaks on 
the latter less distinct. New feathers are protruding on the back, as in 
the male, but these are of a dull drab, while those of the male are me- 
tallic purplish black; new whitish feathers also appear on the whole 
fore neck. Itis then plain that the females molt into a dull plumage 
essentially like that which I take to be that of the adult females (see 
above) at the same time when the young males molt into the glossy 
garb of the old males. 
So far we have only mentioned the change in the contour feathers of 
these two specimens. The molt which takes place in the wings is not 
less instructive, however. As in the true Starling of Europe and in 
Acridotheres cineraceus, the young Sturnia violacea also molts its remiges 
during the first autumn of its life. If we compare the wings of the 
glossy old males with those of the supposed adult females mentioned 
above, we shall find that in the males the outer edges of the inner pri- 
maries and of the secondaries, as well as the tertiaries, primary and 
greater coverts are of a lustrous metallic green, while in the females 
the metallic gloss is quite subdued and green only on secondaries, pri- 
maries, and primary coverts, while greater coverts and tertiaries are 
brown with a silky shine slightly purplish and hoary in a certain light. 
The new wing-feathers of the two molting young birds above referred 
to represent this same difference. The inner primaries and the greater 
coverts are about half out of their sheaths in the male and are lustrous 
green; in the female the former and a few primary coverts are also but 
half ont and faintly glossed with green, while the greater coverts are 
fully out and with a color and gloss as described above in the supposed 
adult females. 
There is consequently strong evidence in favor of a very marked 
sexual difference both in the adults and in the young birds. But we 
should be very pleased to receive information from our friends in the 
field whether they are able to positively confirm or disprove our 
opinion. 
In regard to the specific name here adopted I would remark that Pl. 
Enlum., No. 185, fig. 2, upon which Boddaert (1783) founded his Mota- 
cilla violacea, is a rather good representation of the adult male of the 
bird afterwards described by Wagler as Pastor ruficollis and by Tem- 
minck and Schlegel as Lamprotornis pyrrhogenys. The figure in question 
is rather extreme in the amount of chestnut on the sides and front of 
neck, and of gray across the breast, but it is closely approached by 
No. 96123, U.S. Nat. Mus., which also agrees with Buffon’s figure in 
