PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 105 



ture of several and all of them badly worn. For this reason I 

 have chosen nuptial to represent a stage of plumage following 

 immediately either the prenuptial moult or the time when it 

 would naturally occur, if not omitted. 



In studying the plumages and moults in the natural order in 

 which they follow each other one can hardly fail to be struck 

 by the fact that in spite of many apparent contradictions they 

 make up for each species a purposeful and harmonious whole 

 and the series for any given species is always the same when 

 proper allowance is made for age, sex and individual. Stone 

 ('96) has been one of the few to grasp the idea of sequence, but 

 he has not fully nor clearly developed it. Foreign observers 

 have devoted much time to the study of feather development 

 and feather colors and have even recognized ** generations " of 

 feathers, but there is still lack of definite information regarding 

 the moults of the commonest species, and the relations between 

 plumages and moults remains in many cases a matter for dispute. 



It is well worth one's while to take up each of the plumages 

 in sequence. They represent separate stages or periods in a 

 bird's life, however much they may blend with one another. 

 The first two are peculiar to young birds before they assume 

 feathers of the adult type (excepting the remiges and rectrices 

 in some species). Later stages mark a winter plumage and a 

 summer plumage alternating as long as the individual is alive. 

 These stages make up what I have designated as the sequence 

 of plumages and unless this idea of sequence is firmly fixed in 

 mind no adequate conception of the beautiful symmetry which 

 underlies the development of plumages will be gained. 



1. Natal Plumage or Natal Down (plates III and V). 

 Enough perhaps has already been said regarding this first 

 stage, scanty and evanescent as the plumage is in Passerine 

 species. It has been recognized as the ''downy stage" of the 

 Raptores, it clothes the "chick" of the Grouse and their allies, 

 while ** young in down" and other similar terms have been 

 used in the groups just mentioned and in the multitudes of spe- 

 cies known as the Water Birds, This "down," however, lacks 

 the structure of true down feathers. In Passerine birds it is 



