Vol. XVII rr Recent Literature. \\C 



1901. J *■ *-D 



in a tabulated series of terms, which are adopted in the succeeding pages 

 and which should be followed by all future investigators, both for the 

 sake of uniformity and because the terms seem to be the best that can be 

 suggested. This scheme is as follows: 



Plmnages. Moults. 



Natal [= Down]. Postnatal. 



Juvenal [=" First Plumage."] Postjuvenal. 



First Winter. First Prenuptial. 



First Nuptial. First Postnuptial. 



Second or Adult Winter. Second or Adult Prenuptial. 



Second or Adult Nuptial. Second or Adult Postnuptial, 



etc. etc. 



In the chapter on ' Color Facts versus Color Theories,' the advocates 

 of ' Aptosochromatism ' are considered, and if they have hitherto deceived 

 themselves by thinking that they had still a leg to stand upon, surely it 

 has been knocked from under them by the present paper ! Dr. Dwight 

 very aptly concludes this discussion as follows : " Years ago a theory was 

 current that swallows hibernated beneath the mud of ponds. The fact 

 that they could not do it and did not do it is a lesson that our modern 

 color-change theorists would do well to take to heart." 



Under 'Out-door Study of Moult' we find much of interest and many 

 important suggestions. The connection between moult and migration is 

 considered as well as the difference between the postjuvenal moult of 

 birds of the first and second brood of a single pair. It is ingeniously 

 suggested in this connection that the first brood, being stronger and more 

 precocious than the second, probably often assume a more advanced first 

 winter plumage than their younger brothers, anticipating in part perhaps 

 the normal plumage of the succeeding nuptial season, which would ac- 

 count for many apparent anomalies. 



In considering the preponderance of young in autumn Dr. Dwight 

 advances the plausible suggestion that " the old birds take better care of 

 themselves and the young most frequently fall victims to our powder and 

 shot. Anyone who has chased a family of Towhees along a hedge row 

 will be prepared to admit that it is the parents who skip along at the 

 head of the procession .... and in the autumn do we not find adult 

 Wood Pewees and Scarlet Tanagers almost inaccessible at the very tops 

 of the tallest trees V This he regards as the mahi cause of the scarcity of 

 fall adult specimens rather than earlier migration and other elements that 

 are operative to a certain extent. 



Prefixed to the main chapter of the work is a classification of New 

 York Passerine birds according to the moult. From this we learn that 

 52 species moult twice a year while 81 have but a single moult. Of the 

 first class, however, 21 moult only to a very limited extent in spring, and 



