18S7.] Sennett on Undescribed Plumages of N. Am. Birds. 27 



downy bases. The color of these long hair-like feathers which crown the 

 head is dark brown, almost black, on four of the very young, and lighter 

 brown on one of the specimens, which is the only marked variation 

 among the five youngest. A narrow black band encircles the eye, and the 

 eyelids are jet black. The bill is glossy black above and horn color 

 below. The feet are flesh color, the claws pale in very youngest, and 

 shading into horn brown in the specimen a week old. These interesting 

 young Hawks, with their varying shades of color, and their tall, erect 

 head-tufts, present a most peculiarly pugnacious appearance. 



Half-grown young, still in the downy stage, with first feathers just 

 started : — The entire bird is thickly covered with long white down suffused 

 with tawny ash on neck, sides, belly, and rump. On every part of the body 

 feathers have started through the down ; they are hardly noticeable on the 

 throat, but plainly seen on head and belly, and most developed on back 

 and wings. All the feathers, excepting primaries, rectrices, and on the 

 jugulum, are very dark brown, almost black, and strongly tipped with 

 rufous on scapulars, wing-coverts, and secondaries, and with tawny mixed 

 with white on other parts. The primaries project an inch from the quill- 

 sheath and are black, tipped almost imperceptibly with white. The rec- 

 trices project only half an inch from the quill-sheath, are tipped and 

 edged with white, and are of that hoary ash color so prevalent in full- 

 grown birds of first year. The feathers starting on the jugulum and 

 breast, which can be noticed by parting the down, are tawny. Many of 

 the long, erect, hair-like filaments which crown the head are, with their 

 downy bases, still attached to the new outgrowing feathers and give the 

 youngster a very unkempt appearance. The black bands around the eye 

 and the black of the eyelids have almost disappeared. The bill is now 

 approaching a horn color, having lost its black gloss. The claws are 

 deep blue black. 



Polyborus cheriway. — Audubon's Caracara. 



Downy Stage: — Fur-like down fully half an inch in length covering 

 the entire chick; this ddvvn is not very thick except on the crown. The 

 color is chiefly light buff shading to cream on throat; dorsal stripe and 

 flanks light brown ; a patch of darker brown on shoulder and edge of wing. 

 Crown to middle of eye and nape deep reddish brown. On back and belly, 

 underneath the down, can be seen the dark flecks in the skin containing 

 the embryo feathers. 



Chordeiles texensis. Texan Nighthawk. 



First Plumage : — Remiges and rectrices brown, strongly edged, tipped, 

 spotted, and barred with rufous ; no white spot on wings or tail. Feathers 

 of crown, back, wing-coverts and rump, speckled gray, showing a black 

 arrow-tip in lower half and all tipped with fulvous. The only white is a 

 narrow band over eye. Entire underparts gray, strongly suffused with 

 fulvous and covered with narrow dark bars. 



