^°\'go2^"^l DwiGHT, Variations of the Ainericati Goldf Itch. ICJC 



nuptial moult occurring somewhat later than in males and being 

 as a rule less extensive. 



The series of salicamans contains no bird in freshly acquired 

 winter plumage although some end of August specimens, still in 

 Juvenal dress, show a few new feathers. This indicates an earlier 

 postjuvenal moult in the California bird, just as a specimen of Jan- 

 uary 9 indicates an earlier prenuptial moult. This bird is already 

 yellowish from an admixture of new nuptial feathers and has lost 

 much of the buff of the wing-edgings through fading. Six speci- 

 mens of the equivocal date "3/1/97" have also begun the pre- 

 nuptial moult but are grayer and more worn, a good part of the 

 edgings having disappeared. Specimens of February 6 and March 

 23, scarcely differ from the January bird except that the nuptial 

 black and yellow is well advanced. The January bird is abso- 

 lutely indistinguishable from the yellower January specimens of 

 tristis, and the March salicamans are the counterparts of the 

 browner March and April specimens of tristis. Comparable 

 specimens of tristis^ owing to the later moults, ought to be those of 

 a month or two later than specimens of salicamans^ if both forms 

 faded at the same rate. This does not seem to be the case, for 

 salicamans from January to March appears to fade very little, 

 whereas tristis usually becomes much grayer in a like time. Still it 

 is perfectly possible to pick out a light and a dark series of tristis in 

 any winter month that will show more constant average differences 

 than winter salicamans does from tristis. It might be said a first 

 winter salicamans, on account of yellowishness, most resembles a 

 second winter tristis, but there are many exceptions, and the differ- 

 ences are really extremely slender. Females show these variations 

 as well as males, salicamans, between December and March, 

 fading less than tristis in like period, and the difference is notice- 

 able chiefly in the browner sides and flanks of salicamans. Eastern 

 and western birds therefore may be said to acquire at the time of 

 moult plumages of the same color which vary later through fading 

 alone. It is unfortunate that a male taken December 21, should 

 have been selected as the type of salicamans. The bird is prob- 

 ably like the January 9 specimen, a faded first winter plumage, 

 because the lesser coverts are described as 'olive-green.' Types 

 ought to be fresh-plumaged birds. 



