V0l i8 J 6 IH ] Recent Literature. 24 1 



Z. tricolor are also given, commented on, and to some extent 

 controverted. 



The bulk of this paper of 59 pages is taken up with statements and dis- 

 cussions of the plumage conditions and molts of 135 species belonging to 

 22 families of our commoner land birds. In some, a line or two suffices 

 for the purpose, to others considerable space is devoted, while in the 

 cases of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Scarlet Tanager, several pages for 

 each are given up to original and extremely interesting descriptions of 

 the various plumage phases assumed by these birds. Under ' Order of 

 Molt ' the sequence of the growth of new feathers and also the wearing, 

 are not onlv we'll discussed but are well illustrated by seventeen figures 

 in two plates. 



Mr. Stone tabulates the results of his investigations under six general- 

 izations as follows :-—" I. The annual molt at the close of the breeding 

 season is a physiological necessity and is common to all birds. II. The 

 spring molt and striking changes of plumage effected by abrasion are not 

 physiological necessities and their extent is dependent upon the height of 

 development of coloration in the adult plumage, and does not necessarily 

 bear any relation to the systematic relationships of the species. III. The 

 amount of change effected in the plumage at any particular molt varies 

 considerably in different individuals of the same species and sex. IV. 

 Some species which have a well marked spring molt in their first and 

 second years may discontinue it afterwards, when the adult plumage has 

 once been acquired. And, on the other hand, some individuals may con- 

 tinue to molt in the spring, while others of the same species cease to do 

 so. V. The remiges are molted less frequently than any other part of the 

 plumage. As a rule, they are only renewed at the annual molt (exception, 

 Dolickonyx). VI. Variability in the order of molt in the remiges and 

 presence or absence of molt in the flight feathers at the end of the first 

 summer are generally family characters," etc. Objections might be 

 made to some of the above. Thus, Spinus tristis and Ammodramus sand- 

 ■wichensis savanna are equal, in the adults at least, in the extent of the 

 spring molt, but the change is hardly " dependent upon the height of 

 development of coloration in the adult plumage," for in one a total change 

 of color takes place, whereas in the other there is little more than a 

 replacement of feathers by others of the same color. Again, has our 

 author seen a sufficient number of specimens of molting second year 

 birds of undoubtedly correctly determined age, to warrant the statement 

 that they have a "well marked spring molt?" Also, when some indi- 

 viduals of a species molt in the spring and others do not, is it not because 

 the former are immature and the latter adult? 



With such an extensive self-imposed task and the necessarily large 

 amount of material and conditions examined, it would be perhaps too 

 much to expect that our author would always ' hew to the line,' but the 

 lapses detract little from the merits of this important paper on a hitherto 

 almost nesrlected branch of American ornithology. Most of those that do 



