250 Bird - Lore 



first prenuptial molt is complete except for these feathers. In fresh-breeding 

 plumage the feathers of the back are margined with rusty, which wears away 

 as the season advances. 



At the postnuptial molt, the remains of the first wmter plumage in the 

 wings are lost with all the rest of the feathers, and the fully adult plumage is 

 assumed. In ihis the back is margined with rusty, which gradually wears 

 away, bringing the bird into full breeding plumage (Fig. 2) apparently without 

 a spring molt. 



Painted Bunting {Passerina ciris, Figs. 3, 4). The Juvenal or nesthng 

 plumage of the Painted Bunting, or 'Nonpareil,' gives no hint of the brilliant 

 colors which a year later will be assumed by the male. It is dusky grayish 

 brown above, grayer below, with the belly whitish or buff-tinged. This plumage 

 is soon followed by the first winter plumage acquired by molt of all the feathers. 

 Both sexes now more or less closely resemble the adult female (Fig. 4), but 

 males not infrequently have a few feathers about the head. 



There is no spring (prenuptial) molt, and consequently, during their first 

 breeding season, males resemble the females, except for the occasional p esence 

 of blue feathers just mentioned. 



At the fall (postnuptial) molt, the usual complete change of plumage occurs, 

 and the bird assumes a dress more or less like that of Fig. 5. In some specimens, 

 however, a few yellow feathers on the underparts indicate youth, while it 

 may be at least three years before the somewhat exceptional plumage in which 

 all the wing-feathers and wing-coverts are the color of the lesser coverts, 

 and some wing-quills of the bird figured (Fig. 4). Once having acquired the 

 striking adult male plumage, the bird keeps it. Adults, therefore, are alike in 

 winter and in summer. 



Varied Bunting (Passerina versicolor, Figs. 5, 6). Although the American 

 Museum possesses an exceptionally fine series of this beautiful bird, it is lacking 

 in specimens taken during the molt, which would show beyond question just 

 when and how the various changes of plumage are made. 



So far as the material at hand goes, however, the Varied Bunting resembles 

 the Lazuli Bunting in its sequence and manner of acquisition of plumages. 

 That is, the male during its first winter and first nesting season resembles the 

 female. Some specimens show a tinge of reddish below or a few blue feathers 

 in the head; but, as a rule, the male, prior to its first postnuptial molt, is not 

 distinguishable from the female. 



At this molt, essentially, the adult plumage is acquired. It is, however, 

 broadly tipped with rusty both above and below. This gradually wears off, 

 bringing the bird into the plumage illustrated by Figure 5. 



During the first winter and breeding season the plumage of the female is 

 without trace of blue. 



