15 



lively July 28 and August 10, present no appreciable difference from the 

 birds first described. 



42. Fyranga rubra. 

 Occasional plwmage : male. Wings and tail black ; entire plumage of 

 body rich orange, with a greenish tinge on flanks and anal region. From 

 a specimen in my cabinet, collected by Mr. C. J. Maynard, at Waltham, 

 Mass., May 27, 1869. This remarkable specimen I for a long time con- 

 sidered unique, bxit I have recently examined another in the possession of 

 Mr. Arthur Smith, of Brookline, which is its precise counterpart, and 

 Mr. Ridgway tells me he has seen still others. This plumage is not to be 

 confounded with the ordinary immature one of this bird, where the scarlet 

 is simply of a lighter shade Cac mixed with patches of yellowish-green. It 

 is a pronounced uniform coloring, and apparently a completed plumage. 

 Unquestionably it is abnormal, but hardly to be placed in a category with 

 albinism, and probably it is not very unfrequent. Adult males of P. 

 rubra change to the greenish autumnal plumage of the female and young, 

 a fact not generally known. They may in that stage be distinguished by 

 the blacker coloring of the wings and taU. I have never seen the young 

 males in autumn with red feathers appearing in the plumage, as spoken of 

 by writers ; probably such specimens may be referred to adult birds taken 

 in August or September, with the moult only partially effected ; many of 

 such examples I have now before me, all unquestionably adults. The 

 scarlet bands on the wing-coverta of some specimens are to be regarded as 

 individual adornments, independent of age. Many comparatively imma- 

 ture specimens possess them, while in some of the iinest birds they are 

 wanting. 



43. Hirundo horreorum. 



First plumage : female. Fork of tail not deep ; outer feathers project- 

 ing one-half inch beyond the inner ones. Eemiges and rectrices brown ; 

 upper parts, in general, glossed with dull steel-blue ; feathers of rump 

 and upper tail-coverts edged with rusty ; frontal band narrowed to a mere 

 line of pale fawn-color. Beneath similar to adult, but everywhere paler. 

 From a specimen in my collection taken at Eye Beach, N. H., August 21, 



1872. 



44. Tachycineta bicolor. 



First plumage : male. Upper parts uniform dark slate, with a fine silky 

 gloss ; feathers of interscapular region faintly edged with pale fawn. 

 Secondaries edged and tipped with pale cinnamon-gray. Under parts 

 soiled white, with a faintly indicated pectoral band of pale ashy-brown. 

 From a specimen in my collection, shot at Cambridge, June 22, 1872. 



A good series of summer specimens shows well the transitional stages. 

 The first plumage is worn much longer than in most birds, and the au- 

 tumnal dress very slowly acquired, the metallic tinted feathers appearing 

 one or two at a time. The remiges are also moulted by the young, as well 

 as by the adult, and both in the autumnal plumage have the last pair of 



