PASSERINE BIRDS OF NEW YORK 203 



Old and young become absolutely indistinguishable in most 

 cases, young birds with the wing edgings perhaps a trifle duller 

 and with a yellowish tinge. 



4. First Nuptial Plumage acquired by wear which is 

 marked and by the end of the breeding season the birds are in 

 tatters. The buff is lost and the streaking below comes out in 

 strong contrast on a white ground. 



5. Adult W^ixter Plumage acquired b\' a complete post- 

 nuptial moult beginning usually about the middle of August and 

 completed before the end of September. Old and young can- 

 not be told apart with any certainty, adults however with wing 

 edgings that ma\' perhaps average darker and browner and the 

 throat markings blacker. My series of twenty-three moulting 

 adults shows that age can onh' be determined with certainty by 

 osteological characters. 



6. Adult Nuptial Plumage acquired by wear as in the 

 young bird with the same results. 



Females. — The sexes are practically alike and the moults 

 identical. In first winter plumage females are apt to be more 

 washed with brown or to have a yellowish cast when compared 

 with males in like dress. Females average later in their moult 

 than males. I have one taken September 2 2d that has little 

 more than begun the postnuptial moult. 



Melospiza lincolnii (Aud.). Lincoln's Sparrow 



1. Natal Down. No specimen seen. 



2. Juvenal Plumage acquired by a complete postnatal 

 moult. 



Similar to M. fasciata, the wings and tail, especially the edgings and the crown, a 

 little darker ; but not so dark as M. georgiajia and the chin faintly streaked. 



Above, wood-brown the crown Mar's-brown divided by an indistinct dull olive- 

 gray median line, streaked with black. Wings and tail black edged chiefly 

 with Mar's-brown, the wing coverts and tertiaries with wood-brown. Below, 

 white faintly yellow tinged, washed with pale buff across throat and on sides, 

 flanks and crissum, and streaked with black except on the abdomen, the chin 

 also flecked. Superciliary stripe indistinct and dull olive-gray with dusky shaft 

 streaks. Bill and feet pinkish buff becoming dusky and drying to a dull clay- 

 color, the upper mandible slaty. 



