28o AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



external mask in a minute or two, after the opening is well made for 

 their exit. In the same way, pet parrots and other birds are sometimes 

 all of six weeks in moulting, and I have seen some birds in confinement 

 which had tag feathers hanging for months, and they have to be assisted 

 at times to complete their change. 



The Scarlet Tanager is a good subject to study in August, for the 

 iDright red male gradually assumes the plumage of the female; at least 

 I have taken these red specimens with more or less blotches of the 

 yellowish-green in their coats, giving a decidedly peculiar appearance 

 to the birds. This peculiarity becomes more pronounced as the season 

 advances until the birds are nearly all over of a greenish hue. I have 

 never seen a male in the late summer that was entirely of the color of 

 the female, and judge that as soon as they reach this stage the band 

 moves to the south. Brilliant birds nearly always lose much of their 

 striking colors in the autumnal moult; that is the brilliant coloration is 

 generally subdued, but many of them are even more attractive in their 

 inodest coats. 



There are some birds which are so secret in their moulting that the 



process has not yet been studied. I am in doubt as to the movements 



of the Baltimore Oriole in moulting, and am some in favor of admitting 



that these birds move to the south before performing this change. No 



birds leave us before moulting that I can learn of, yet I could never 



learn that the orioles moulted with us. If they do moult while still at 



the north then they are very secret in the act and must perform the 



change very rapidly, which is unlike their relatives the bobolinks and 



the grackles, which birds are easily observed. What is more, I have 



repeatedly seen brilliantly plumaged male orioles in Michigan as late 



as the twenty-eighth of August. As the orioles disappear very soon 



after this date, they must moult very quickly and then depart at once. 



The Hummer moults immediately after the nesting duties have been 



performed, and it is very rare to see a bright Ruby-throat after July 



15th, and I have yet to see a well plumaged male about the flowers in 



August, which is conclusive evidence that the Hummers moult early. 



The movements of these birds have been carefully watched for years 



as they sport among the flowers of our garden beds. 



Many birds make so pronounced a change in moulting that identifi- 

 cation is difficult for the novice, and not rarely the advanced student 

 fails. For instance the Black-polled and Bay-breasted Warblers are 

 markedly difl^erent in the spring, but in the late summer it is exceeding- 

 ly difficult to distinguish species, especially the birds of the year and 

 the females. In many species the female takes the appearance of the 

 immatures, and sometimes this is the case with the male as well; the 

 whole family moving to the south as a uniformed band. 



