m Various Species of North American Birds. 181 



transverse baiuls of yellowish-wliite ; rest of \ipper parts like the adult. 

 Throat brownish- white ; abdomen pale brownish-yellow ; breast and sides 

 dull brownish-olive, thickly barred with dusky. From a specimen in my 

 collection shot at U{)ton, Me., August 6, 1873. 



The first plumage of this species is worn for a longer i)eriod than that 

 of any other l)ird with which I am acquainted. Some specimens taken as 

 late as October and November seem not to have fully perfected their fii-st 

 moult, many of the earlier feathers being still retained. In this condition 

 they present a curiously patched appearance, and scarcely any two are 

 alike. Full justice has hardly been done by wi'iters to the adult plumage 

 of this species. Among the males, it is true, only a comparatively small 

 amount of variation obtains, and the full dress is always acquired the first 

 spring. But the females in spring plumage differ to a degree which seems 

 almost endless. This mutation is, however, chiefly in relation to the color 

 and markings of the crown. Thus, out of thirteen females before me, all 

 collected in the breeding season, only six have the full patch of crimson 

 upon the crown. In one specimen the whole top of the head is spotted 

 thickly and evenly with brownish-white. Another exhibits two lateral 

 patches of brownish-orange which extend nearly to the occiput, while a 

 third has a few scarlet feathers npon the forehead. The remainder are 

 variously marked over the crown with mixed yellow and crimson. This 

 excessive variability is probably a purely individual tendency to aberration 

 from a given type, as several spring females not as yet through the 

 moult, and plainly shown by the remains of the previous plumage to 

 be birds entering upon their first breeding season, have fully developed 

 crown-patches of pure crimson. 



97. Centurus carolinus. 



First 'phimage : female. Crown dull ashy, each feather tipped broadly 

 with plumbeous ; nape with a naiTow, inconspicuous collar of pale dull 

 brick-red. Rest of upper parts marked as in the adult, with, however, a 

 brownish tinge in the transverse white bands. Abdomen dull saflron ; rest 

 of under parts brownish-ashy, nearly every feather in a broad band across 

 the breast with a narrow, obscure shaft-streak * of purplish-brown. From 

 a specimen in my collection obtained by Mr. W. D. Scott, at Coalburgh, 

 W. Va., July 23, 1872. 



98. Colaptes auratus. 



First pluvmge : male. Crown washed with dull red ; nuchal band dull 

 scarlet. Otherwise similar to the adult, but with the throat tinged with 

 ash and the spots upon the under parts dusky instead of black. From a 

 specimen in my collection taken at Cambridge, Mass., July 6, 1873. 



* Several Woodpeckers, unmarked beneath in maturer stages, show a tendency 

 to spots or streaks upon the sides and breast when in first plumage. 



