Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 47 



FALL MIGRATION 





PLACE 



Number 



of years' 



record 



Average date of 

 fall arrival 



Earliest date of 

 fall arrival 



Southern Maine 



Dublin, N. H 



Roxbury, Mass 



Norwich, Conn 



Montauk Point, N. Y 



Warren, Pa 



Near Anacostia, D. C 



Aweme, Manitoba 



Lanesboro, Minn 



Big Sandy, Mont 



Hays City, Kan 



La Grange, Mo. 



5 

 5 



November 7 

 October 15 



August 2 2, 1908 

 September 15, 1897 

 November 4, 1882 

 December 7, 1880 

 November 7, 1899 

 November i, 1906 

 August II, 1907 

 October 7, 1906 

 November 23, 1887 

 September 12, 1905 

 September 15, 1902 

 November 16, 1899 



Notes on the Plumage of North American Sparrows 



THIRTEENTH PAPER 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



(See frontispiece) 



Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra, Figs. 1-3). The juvenal, or nestling plumage 

 of both sexes of this species suggests that of a female Purple Finch rather than 

 that of a Crossbill, being streaked with dusky and with no trace of red. By a 

 molt of the body feathers, this plumage is followed by the first winter plumage 

 (Fig. 2), with its widely varying mixture of red and green and yellow, never 

 exactly alike in any two specimens. 



First nuptial plumage is acquired by wear, which, as Dwight has shown, has 

 the effect of brightening the whole plumage through a loss of the grayish 

 barbvdes. 



The adult plumage (Fig. i) is gained at the first postnuptial, that is, second 

 fall, molt, and there is no further change in the color of the bird aside from that 

 produced by the wear just mentioned. 



The female passes from the streaked nestling plumage into first winter 

 plumage, which, while averaging a little duller, is essentially like that of the 

 adult (Fig. 3). 



The two American races of Crossbill stand in the A. 0. U. Check-List as 

 follows: 



Loxia curvirostra minor (Brehm). Range: Northern North America. 

 Breeds from central Alaska, northern Mackenzie, central Ungava, and New- 

 foundland, south to California (Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mountains), 

 southern Colorado, Michigan, and in the Alleghanies of northern Georgia 

 (casually in Massachusetts, Maryland, and Virginia); winters irregularly 

 south to southern CaHfornia, New Mexico, northern Texas, Louisiana, and 

 Florida; casual in Lower California, Guadalupe Island, and Bermuda. 



