iSS6.j Geiieral Notes. 2 70 



cently examined this bird and found it to be the common Oven-bird 

 (5. aurocapillus). 



It is only just to Professor Hamlin to state that he should not be held 

 responsible for the error, as he sent a large number of alcoholic speci- 

 mens to the Cambridge Museum at that time, and after they had been 

 identified, the list of names (among which was (^Seiurus ludoviciantis) 

 was returned to him and by him incorporated in his paper. Nor was the 

 mistake Mr. Allen's, as he was not connected with the Museum until 

 several years later. 



Tliis leaves Seinnis ludovicianus with but a single record for the State 

 of Maine. — Arthur P. Chadbourne. Cambridge, Mass. 



Changes in the Plumage of Geothlypis trichas. — In the interesting 

 review in the October 'Auk' (1SS5), of the tenth volume of the British 

 Museum Catalogue of Bii-ds, Mr. Allen very appropriately takes occa- 

 sion to correct the gross error, into which most of the books have 

 fallen, in regard to the winter plumage of the males of so common 

 and extensively distributed a species as Geothlypis trichas. The error in 

 question is a statement to the effect that in winter the adult male loses 

 the conspicuous black and ashy markings about the head, and takes on 

 the uniform olivaceous and brownish colors of the upper parts of the 

 female. In making this correction, however, Mr. Allen, I believe, does 

 not go far enough, for according to my observations the males not onlv 

 never assume the plumage of the female after having once attained the 

 masculine livery, but young birds moult directly into a plumage approach- 

 ing that of the adult male (which will be indicated in detail farther on), 

 when they begin in August to shed the well-known fluffy 'first plumage.' 

 with its greenish and ochreish tints, brownish wing-coverts, etc. 



There are, Mr. Allen states, instances in which the young male has 

 been taken in winter in the female plumage, but these, I think, should be 

 regarded as exceptional. I have examined very carefully the two large 

 series of this bird (including Mr. Brewster's occidetitalis. which, for the 

 purpose we have in hand, may be 'lumped' with trichas) contained in the 

 collection of the National Museum, and in that of Mr. Henshaw, besides 

 ten or a dozen other specimens, amounting altogether to 144 individuals, 

 and have failed to find a single winter male without the adult black and 

 ashy markings. But I did find three spring males with these characters 

 so imperfectly developed as to indicate, probably, that the birds had passed 

 the preceding winter in the plumage of the female. 



The changes in plumage when the young male begins his first moult, 

 which occurs in August, in the latitude of Washington, maybe brieflv 

 summarized as follows: — The feathers of the head and middle of the 

 throat appear to be the first that are lost. The latter are replaced by yel- 

 low ones (_not so bright, however, as in the adult), which at first are to be 

 seen in linear blotches. Those of the head give place to a new set, of a 

 fine chocolate brown color, shading off into olivaceous towards the nape in 

 most birds, in some, however, extending over almost the whole of the 



