PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 199 



Similar above to the previous plumage, but with the chestnut crown veiled with buft" 

 edgings and narrowly streaked with black. Below, uniform grayish white, un- 

 streaked, washed with buft' on throat and sides. Superciliary line dull white 

 buff tinged. Loral, postocular and indistinct submalar streaks black. 



4. First Nuptial Plumage acquired by a partial prenuptial 

 moult in March and April, which involves chiefly the forehead, 

 crown, sides of head, chin and throat, little else of the body 

 plumage, and not the wings nor the tail. The chestnut crown, 

 bordered by the white superciliaiy lines, the white chin and the 

 adjacent cinereous gray are acquired by moult, abrasion bringing 

 the streaking of the back into prominence, the buff and chestnut 

 e\'erywhere paler from gradual fading. Young and old become 

 practically indistinguishable. 



5. Adult Winter Plumage acquired by a complete post- 

 nuptial moult beginning in mid-August. Indistinguishable in 

 many cases from first winter dress, the tertiaries usually chestnut 

 edged to their tips, not buff, the greater coverts more often white 

 tipped, less buff about the head ; the gra}'s and chestnuts gen- 

 erally richer, and somewhat less streaking on the crown. 



6. Adult Nuptial Plumage acquired b}- a partial prenup- 

 tial moult as in the young bird. The line of demarcation be- 

 tween old and new feathers can be made out in all birds in the 

 spring and summer, and all the new crown feathers are chestnut 

 without the terminal black spot characteristic of the winter 

 plumage, therefore, the prenuptial moult must occur regularly 

 in adults as well as young. 



Female. — The sexes are practicalh' alike in all plumages, and 

 the moults are similar, the prenuptial being more limited. The 

 first winter plumage is usually more washed below A\ith brown, 

 the chin with more dusky edgings and the crown is less dis- 

 tinctly chestnut and more streaked, these streaks more frequently 

 remaining posteriorly than in the male after the prenuptial moult. 



Spizella pusilla (Wils.). Field Sparrow 



1. Natal Down. Mouse-gray. 



2. Juvenal Plum.a.ge acquired by a complete postnatal moult. 



