PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 89 



Some few young birds however have the pecuharity of renew- 

 ing only the outer or distal four or five at the prenuptial moult. 

 This partial moult is easily overlooked particularly in worn 

 spring specimens. The Indigo Bunting i^Cyainospiza cyanea) 

 and Short-billed Marsh Wren [Cisiothonis palustris) are ex- 

 amples of this peculiarity. 



Primaries are almost never left over — if any moult takes place 

 in this series all are involved except as just indicated. When- 

 ever they undergo a moult so do their upper coverts with rare 

 exceptions and as the latter fade and wear more than the pri- 

 maries they are often a key to the age of the bird, in the young 

 differing more in color from those of the adult than do the pri- 

 maries themselves. Occasionally one or more of the primary 

 coverts is left over until the next moult. Primaries show the 

 least wear of any feathers when compared with others grown 

 at the same time. Their compact structure and deep pigmen- 

 tation make them unusually resistant. 



The secondaries are always six for each wing in the species 

 under consideration, it being desirable to recognize the three 

 proximal feathers of this series as tertiaries. Coincidently very 

 nearly with the fall of the fifth or sixth primary the first or 

 outermost of the secondaries is lost, followed in succession by 

 the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth or proximal, the pre- 

 ceding feather usually reaching a considerable length before the 

 next in the series is moulted. There seems to be some irregu- 

 larity in the loss of the inner members which are replaced 

 more rapidly than are their predecessors, but the innermost falls 

 at very nearly the same time as the outermost primary so that 

 the moult appears to begin near the middle of the remiges and 

 proceed evenly in either direction. 



Whenever there is a complete moult of the primaries there is 

 also one of the secondaries and there seems to be few exceptions 

 to this rule in young or old although fhe outer primaries as al- 

 ready explained may be moulted when no renewal occurs among 

 the secondaries. The secondaries are never renew^ed as a series 

 without moult of the primaries preceding their moult. 



The three tertiaries of each wing which, from their position, 



