aad CHAPMAN, Spring Moult of the Bobolink. ISI 
It is of course well known that cage-birds may moult very 
irregularly, and this is particularly true of Bobolinks.. Dr. Allen’ 
records numerous individuals moulting in the spring while Dr. 
Chadbourne’s specimen lost practically no feathers at that season. 
In a bird store in New York City at this time (November) are two 
male Bobolinks still wearing the black breeding dress. Before 
admitting, therefore, that the changes which occur in the plumage 
of a cage-bird may also take place in birds in a state of nature, it 
will be well to examine that part of Dr. Chadbourne’s paper 
relating to the specimens of wild Bobolinks he has studied. ‘This 
refers largely to the Corumbé, Brazil, specimen (Am. Mus. No. 
32783) figured in a previous number of this journal.? In 
describing this specimen,’ I have said that it was passing from 
the Reedbird to the black Bobolink plumage by a complete moult. 
In fact the only feathers of the old plumage remaining are the first 
primary and five inner secondaries of the right wing, four inner 
secondaries of the left wing, the primary coverts and scapularies 
of both wings, and some of the under wing-coverts. Old contour 
feathers may be found in the centre of the back and in small 
numbers about the head, neck, and upperbreast. In all these parts 
the moult is in progress and these old feathers would evidently 
soon have been replaced by those of the new plumage. The 
centre of the lower breast and the centre of the abdomen are still 
occupied by the old plumage, the feathers of this part being, as in 
the adult Reedbird, white tinged with yellow. An August moult- 
ing, adult Bobolink has nearly acquired the Reedbird plumage but, 
as in the Corumba bird, the feathers of the middle of the abdomen 
have not as yet been moulted, apparently showing that these 
feathers are the last to be shed. 
’Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., VIII, 1896, p. 44. 
*The Auk, X, 1893, p. 309. Dr. Chadbourne’s remarks upon this plate 
(antea, p. 141) would imply that acting under my instructions, the artist had 
partially completed the moult of the Corumba bird therein figured, and I must 
confess that my own statement regarding it would lead one to the same con- 
clusion; but as I was not in this country when either the drawing or lithograph 
was made and, beyond the fact that the plate was contemplated, knew nothing 
whatever about it, I can hardly be held responsible for its inaccuracies. 
3The Auk, VII, 1890, p. 120. 2 
