PLUMAGE OP YOUNG BIRDS. 89 



Not every person is aware that the common red- 

 headed woodpecker is no red-head at all during the 

 first summer of his buoyant young life, but a black- 

 head instead, or, rather, his head and neck are very 

 dark gray. However, one day in September I was 

 delighted and amused to find an adolescent wood- 

 pecker whose head and neck were beginning to 

 turn quite reddish, flecked everywhere with white, 

 giving him a decidedly picturesque appearance as 

 he scuddled up an oblique fence-stake. Of course 

 the red-head is always sui generis, but in this case 

 he seemed to be more so than usual. Nearly all 

 the woodpeckers — the downy, the hairy, and the 

 golden-winged — are devoid of the red spots on 

 their heads, while young, to prevent them, I suppose, 

 from becoming vain. 



Sometimes an entirely foreign tint is introduced 

 into the plumage of the young bird during his tran- 

 sition state. One day I was surprised to observe 

 a decidedly bluish cast on the striped breast of a 

 young towhee bunting, which was all the more 

 curious because there is no blue whatever in the 

 plumage of either the adult male or female. But 

 the most curious freak of Nature's dyeing I have 

 ever seen in the bird world was in the case of a 

 young scarlet tanager, whose body, including the 

 wings, was completely girded with a band of white, 

 the border of which was quite irregular. As every 

 observer knows, the only colors visible in the adult 

 male's plumage are black and scarlet ; still, when 

 the scarlet feathers are pushed aside, they show 



