34 BIRDS OF IVIGTUT. 



nests, they are of a somewhat dark gray color on the back 

 ■ but light gray on the under side, with many longish and 

 dark colored stripes, but no dark fleck on the throat. They 

 moult at the same time as the old birds, in July and August, 

 and attain the usual autumn dress in every detail, with this 

 difference in some of them, however, that the crown becomes 

 quite dark-red, or copper-colored, with far less metallic lustre 

 than that of the old birds during the summer. 



Those birds which I have caught in the fall after the 

 moulting have, as a rule, been rather lighter colored and 

 more yellowish than those that moulted in captivity, and 

 have, besides, had a more lustrous bronze or copper-colored 

 crown. 



Prom the following noted circumstance it would appear 

 that some birds keep their autumn dress during the whole 

 summer, and presumably also during the mating and nest- 

 ing season. On the 17th of May, 1886, I saw among the 

 newly arrived birds, all of which had a red crown, one or 

 two birds which had no red on the crown, but had a darker 

 colored head, and a faintly red-speckled breast. I also 

 caught two birds in full autumn dress with yellowish- 

 bronze colored crowns, one on the 1st of July, the other 

 on the 23d of May. This last was a male, a great and good 

 singer, and very attentive to the females who were his im- 

 prisoned companions. These two birds did not moult dur- 

 ing the whole summer. 



My observations on the moulting of these birds in cap- 

 tivity convinced me that all old birds, from the brightest- 

 colored male to the dullest-colored female, lose their red 

 color completely during the autumn moulting (or it might 

 be called the summer moulting), and then quite resemble 

 the ^ung as they appear after their first moult, excepting 

 that some of the latter get a copper-colored crown. Never- 



