Vol. XT LooMis on Plumage of Some South Carolina Birds. \X\ 



1893 J 



NOTES ON THE PLUMAGE OF SOME BIRDS FROM 

 UPPER SOUTH CAROLINA. 1 



BY LEVERETT M. LOOMIS. 



In the years I have spent in field study of the birds of South 

 Carolina I have incidentally collected specimens illustrating 

 various phases of plumage. This material I have compared at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, and the notes which 

 follow are the result of this comparison or have been suggested 

 by statements current in the literature. 



Buteo borealis. — A moulting specimen, July 3, 1S79, has 

 worn rectrices that are grayish brown and numerously banded, and 

 new ones (in various stages of development) that are rufous, 

 with conspicuous subterminal bar of black. In an example ( <? 

 juv., Sept. 25, 1884) of the Western form calurus, from Arizona, 

 in the collection of the American Museum, there is a rufous 

 tinge on the tail. In some of the lateral feathers it is slight, but 

 in the majority it predominates. The former specimen shows 

 that the transition from the immature to the rufous-colored tail 

 may be effected at one moult, the latter that the transition may be 

 more gradual. It remains to be determined whether this dual 

 manner of assumption of adult plumage is characteristic in both 

 subspecies or whether the more gradual change is peculiar to the 

 one and the abrupt to the other. 



An adult female, Dec. 17, 1SS1, from South Carolina, 

 approaches calurus. It is more typical in respect to intensity of 

 color than some examples in the American Museum, from Ari- 

 zona, labelled calurus. It seems preferable, notwithstanding the 

 established fact of southeasterly migration, to regard this speci- 

 men as an extreme dark phase of borealis rather than a bird of 

 Western birth. It is a safe rule not to admit a subspecies, sup- 

 posed to be extralimital, into a fauna upon the strength of a 

 single specimen, unless the specimen typically exemplifies all the 

 characters of the subspecies. 



The last, like the first specimen noticed, has a broad subterm- 



1 Unless otherwise stated, the particular locality in each instance is Chester County. 



