^°8q8^1 Palmick, Our Small Eastern Shrikes. 257 



Molt of the Jiiunatiirc. 



When the flight feathers of the young are full grown new body 

 feathers begin to grow on the back and breast. Those of the 

 back are dullish slaty, faintly barred subterminally with blackish. 

 Beneath they are whitish, tinged \vith' slaty on the sides and very 

 slightly with brownish on the underbody except on the throat, each 

 feather being subterminally crossed with a faint crescent of dusky. 

 As the change continues much of this barring and the dull colors 

 wear off, leaving the white and slaty purer. The last of the nest- 

 ling plumage to disappear on the body is on the pileum, upper 

 neck, and rump. The progress of the change of the flight feathers 

 I have been unable to determine, specimens being too few. The 

 nestling wing-coverts are retained for a long time and it is probable 

 that, like the flight feathers, they do not change until the next 

 summer's molt. An immature female taken November 11, in 

 King George County, Virginia, has not changed its flight feathers, 

 but many pinfeathers are concealed under the breast feathers and 

 molting is evident on the throat. A series of ten specimens col- 

 lected in the vicinity of Washington, D. C, by Mr. James Gaut, 

 during the last week of March of this year, are all immature birds. 

 Except two they are in various stages of molting change, both 

 males and females, new feathers appearing on the throat and 

 breast, on the face, and, in a few specimens, on the head and 

 back. The wing-coverts still have the immature light patches at 

 their tips though variously worn. No change in the flight feathers 

 appears, and the primaries are usually considerably weathered. 



Specimens Examined. • 



L. I. jnigrans. 



Maine i Ohio . 



Vermont ..... 2 Indiana 



New York 12 Illinois 



Pennsylvania .... 3 Wisconsin 



Maryland 7 Minnesota .... 17 



District of Columbia . . 9 Tennessee .... 3 



Virginia 22 Canada 3 



North Carolina . . . i 



Total 104 



17 



