Vol. XXXIl 



1914 



] SwARTH, California Forms of Fsaltriparus. 505 



plumage worn and faded, but as yet show no pin feathers. No. 

 2651, adult female, San Jacinto Mountains, July 11, 1908, is well 

 started in the molt, with several of the old tail feathers still in place, 

 but with stubby new ones also appearing, and with some new and 

 some old flight feathers and coverts, and a mixture of new and old 

 plumage over the body. No. 6100 (Grinnell coll.), adult male. 

 El Monte, Los Angeles County, September 22, 1904, has almost 

 accomplished the change, but careful scrutiny shows that the first 

 (outer) primary has just begun to appear, and also that there are 

 many pin feathers and some remnants of the old plumage, scattered 

 over the head and body. One or two other specimens taken a little 

 earlier in September are nearly as far advanced; but speaking in 

 general it is not until the second week in October that the molt can 

 be said to be entirely over. Two specimens taken at Witch Creek, 

 San Diego County, October 10, 1908 (nos. 3994, 3995), are in perfect 

 winter plumage, the earliest taken skins at hand of which this can 

 be said. The molt is thus shown to be of quite long duration, about 

 three months for adults, and a little less for the post-juvenal molt. 



There are numerous specimens at hand collected in southern 

 California during fall, winter, and spring, enough to show^ that while 

 the birds undergo marked changes in appearance before the follow- 

 ing summer, it is due entirely to fading and wear of the feathers. 

 At the completion of the molt, post-juvenal or annual as it may be, 

 adults and young are practically alike, and can no longer be dis- 

 tinguished by external appearance. 



The molt of P. minimus californicus is illustrated in series from 

 the Sacramento Valley and the Sierra Nevada. There are speci- 

 mens in Juvenal plumage taken in Yolo County, May 22 and later; 

 birds beginning to molt, from the southern Sierras in Kern County, 

 the third week in July; and adults and immatures with the molt 

 not quite accomplished, from Placer County, the third week in 

 October. The sequence of events is thus practically the same as 

 in the southern California bird. 



Of plumbeus, adults and juveniles from Arizona, Nevada, and 

 east-central California show substantially the same changes over 

 the same seasons. 



Plumage Variations at Different Ages: Besides the scanty 

 natal down, worn for a short period by the nestling, there are appar- 



