Il6 Recent Literature. \^t^. 



in 14 others the spring moult is largely suppressed after the first year. 

 The only species which have a coinplete moult twice a year are the 

 Bobolink, Long and Short-billed Marsh Wrens and Sharp-tailed Spar- 

 row,' the last being for the first time added to this category- by Dr. 

 Dwight. 



In the body of the paper the species are considered systematically, fol- 

 lowing the nomenclature of the Second Edition of the A. O. U. Check-List. 

 From one to three pages are devoted to each species, the plumages being 

 described in numbered paragraphs, beginning with the natal down. The 

 Juvenal and one or more of the succeeding plumages are described in de- 

 tail and the others contrasted with them, while the part played by each 

 moult or by wear in producing the various plumages is carefully consid- 

 ered. The color of the natal down in many birds is here given for the 

 first time, as also descriptions of many juvenal pluinages. The only species 

 in which Dr. Dwight was unable to examine specimens in juvenal 

 plumage are Alauda arvensis, Carduelis carduelis, Ammodramus ?ieho7ii, 

 Passerella iliaca, Dendroica pahnarnm, and Geothlypis agilis. 



In his preliminary remarks Dr. Dwight says : "There may be little that 

 is quite new in these pages, for many have traversed the subject before 

 me, but no one has taken just iny point of view, and my work has been on 

 absolutely independent lines. Nothing whatever has been taken at second 

 hand." While all this is of course true, nevertheless Dr. Dwight has 

 elaborated the subject to such an extent, and made his work so nearly 

 complete in all but a few species, that it is to be regretted that a slightly 

 different treatment was not adopted, /. e., that more frequent reference 

 was not made through the body of the text to the work of others, so that 

 the large number of new facts set forth by Dr. Dwight should be properly 

 emphasized and the mistakes and erroneous suppositions of others speci- 

 fically pointed out, when they are corrected. Some apparently authentic 

 " second hand information "might also have been included with advantage 

 where it supplements or differs from the author's experience. This is 

 the onlv criticism that can well be advanced against this admirable piece 

 of work. 



In order to point out more clearly the many new facts first brought 

 forward by Dr. Dwight, the writer will take the liberty of making a com- 

 parison with a paper of his own^ covering much the same groimd, and 



^ As illustrating the importance of having specimens taken just at the right 

 time, which Dr. Dwight emphasizes, I may state that when preparing my 

 paper (see below) I examined a series of 104 of these birds and found that 

 while they moulted the tail and body feathers in spring the primaries were 

 apparently retained. Specimen number 105, however, secured after my paper 

 was published, showed the complete moult! 



- The Molting of Birds with Special Reference to the Plumages of the 

 Smaller Land Birds of Eastern North America. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 1896 (Apr. 14), pp. 108-165. 



