280 General Notes. [April 



upper purts. Before tliese two changes are completed, the first black 

 feathers begin to show themselves in the maxillarj region, and they grad- 

 ually spread into an irregularly shaped patch on the sides of the head and 

 neck. Nearly all of these black feathers are tipped with ash, the amount 

 of which appears to vary with the individual. At this stage the black is 

 quite similar to that which adorns the breast of G. Philadelphia ; and in 

 this plumage the bird is the one described hy Audubon (Orn. Biog., I, 

 1832, 124. pi. 24) as Sylvia roscoe, and is verv common during the latter 

 part of August and in September. The next step in this somewhat pro- 

 tracted change begins in September, when the black feathers make their 

 appearance on the forehead at the base of the upper mandible, whence 

 they continue to extend until the area usually covered with black is at- 

 tained; and the border of hoary ash now appears sharply defined against 

 the black mask and the greenish olive and brown of the rest of the upper 

 parts. The ashy tips to the black feathers have now entirely disappeared. 

 A New Orleans specimen (No. 90.665) taken November 23, undoubtedly 

 a young bird of the year, illustrates this phase very perfectly. No. 2782, 

 (Coll. II. W. 11.), collected November i, shows a stage preceding the 

 last; the soft chocolate brown covers the whole back of the head, and the 

 ashy band, which seems to be a very variable character, is very much 

 restricted. 



It may be well to state that of the 144 specimens examined of trichas 

 and occidentalism 24 of them were young August and autumnal males in 

 various transitional stages of plumage, and there are none of them taken 

 later than August 20 which do not show some traces of the changes above 

 indicated. There is another peculiarity of ^oung fall birds, female as 

 well as male, which seems to be very constant, first pointed out. I be- 

 lieve, by Professor Baiid (Rev. Am. Bds. 1864, 221), namely, the much 

 lighter color of the bill as compared with spring birds. 



During the past summer and autumn, the writer enjoyed excellent facili- 

 ties for observing the Yellow-throat in his native haunts. A favorite col- 

 lecting ground was an old forest-surrounded field, near Ellicott City. 

 Md., through the centre of which ran a brook of considerable size, whose 

 banks wire fringed with such a dense and luxuriant growth of bushes and 

 tangled vines as to meet over the middle of the stream, forming, as any 

 •bird-man' knows, a paradise for Yellow-throats, Chats, and other thicket- 

 loving species. On three or four different occasions during the latter part 

 of August I penetrated this tunnel of verdure, and by employing the well- 

 known 'screeping' device — making a noise-machine out of the back of the 

 hand and the lips — attracted the usual mob of curious, scolding, and 

 anxious little birds. The young Yellow-throats were particularly numer- 

 ous in these excited assemblages, and once I counted seven young males 

 with the incipient black masks, and two young females in sight at the 

 same tiine, the most distant of them not twenty feet from the spot where 

 I was sitting. During the following month (September), I found the 

 young males in the transitional plumage quite common in Kentucky, 

 where I collected a good deal. 



