114 DWIGHT 



doubt by the cranial character on which I would lay so much 

 stress. The Purple Grackle {Qiiiscahis qnisciila) and many of 

 the Sparrows are examples. The prenuptial moult may oblit- 

 erate distinctions that survive the postjuvenal moult, for instance 

 in the Yellow Warbler {Dendroica tcstivd) or White-throated 

 Sparrow {Zonotrichia albicollis). Distinctions that have survived 

 the two earlier moults, whatever may have been their extent ap- 

 pear to vanish at the first postnuptial. If I had ever found au- 

 tumnal specimens in immature plumage, showing the characters 

 of the adult skull, I would be ready to admit that some species 

 pass a second winter in immature dress, but I fail to find any 

 such birds. On the other hand I do find birds in adult winter 

 plumage with a few of the feathers that characterize the first 

 nuptial dress. I have seen such specimens actually in moult of 

 the Indigo Bunting {^Passcritin cyancd), Orchard Oriole {Jcterus 

 spurius), Redstart [Sctop/iaga ruticilla) and others supposed to re- 

 quire several years to attain fully adult plumage. That variety 

 of plumages is due primarily to individual variation can be 

 proved beyond dispute by many specimens in first winter plu- 

 mage, and also by many in first nuptial dress when parts of the 

 previous plumages arc retained. That even the most highly 

 colored species require but one year to attain fully adult plu- 

 mage is therefore not a matter so difficult of demonstration when 

 adult autumnal specimens are secured in moult still retaining 

 the tell-tale feathers of their first nuptial dress. 



6. Second or Adult Nuptial Plumage (plate VII, fig. 2). This 

 sixth stage acquired like the fourth by wear alone, by moult or 

 by a combination of the two can only be distinguished from later 

 nuptial plumages in a very few exceptional cases in which either 

 first nuptial feathers have been retained after the first post-nup- 

 tial moult or birds are taken in the midst of it. As this moult 

 is normally complete, the second nuptial plumage will be made 

 up at most of parts of two, the second winter and the second 

 nuptial. It is therefore less complex than the first nuptial and 

 may or may not differ from it in pattern and color. It has 

 been pretty generally taken for granted that brilliancy of plu- 

 mage increases with age, but it is not an easy thing to prove 



