PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 211 



5. ADULT WINTER PLUMAGE acquired by a complete post- 

 nuptial moult. The full blue plumage is assumed, veiled with 

 cinnamon feather tips on the head and back, a deeper band 

 across the throat, these edgings very pale elsewhere below. 

 The wings are black with blue edgings, those of the lesser and 

 median coverts rich chestnut, of the greater coverts paler, of the 

 tertiaries still paler ; the tail darker than the wings and with 

 deeper blue edgings, the outer pair of rectrices narrowly tipped 

 with white. The lores are black. 



6. ADULT NUPTIAL PLUMAGE acquired by wear through which 

 the veiling is usually wholly lost, birds becoming almost com- 

 pletely blue except the wings and tail. The prenuptial moult of 

 the first year is evidently not repeated. 



Female. The plumages and moults correspond but the female 

 never acquires much blue, remaining in a brown plumage like 

 the male first winter. In first winter plumage the female is 

 pale cinnamon-brown darkest on the head and palest below 

 and on the rump ; the wings and tail deep olive-brown ; the 

 wing bands pale chestnut, the one at tips of greater coverts 

 paler. The first nuptial plumage, assumed almost wholly by 

 wear, is paler, the brown fading. The adult winter plumage 

 usually shows a bluish tint in the wing edgings, the wings and 

 tail being darker than in first winter dress. More mature birds 

 may show blue feathers on the rump, crown, sides of head, sides 

 of throat and across the jugulum but do not often acquire a 

 plumage as bright as that of the male in first nuptial plumage. 



Passerina cyanea (Linn.). INDIGO BUNTING 



1. NATAL DOWN. Brownish mouse-gray. 



2. JUVENAL PLUMAGE acquired by a complete postnatal moult. 



Above, including sides of head, dark sepia-brown, wings darker, the primaries and 

 secondaries edged with pale wood-brown, the coverts and tertiaries with pale 

 cinnamon. Tail pale clove-brown, more or less faintly edged with greenish or 

 glaucous blue. Below, dull white, washed with raw umber-brown on breast, 

 sides and crissum and narrowly streaked with sepia on the breast and sides. 

 Bill and feet pinkish buff, the former becoming dusky, the latter dull black 

 with age. 



