28 



89. Empidonaz flaviventris. 



First plumage ; male. Ajbove uniform yellowish-olive. Beneath dull 

 yellow, with a brownish cast, tinged strongly with olive upon the throat, 

 breast, and sides. Wing-bands brownish-yellow. Altogether very similar 

 in general appearance to the adult. From a specimen in my collection 

 shot at Upton, Me., August 4, 1874. 



90. Chordeiles virginianus. 



First 'plumage. Above dull black, irregularly marbled everywhere with 

 reddish fawn-color and pale rusty. All the feathers are tipped, edged, and 

 barred with the lighter colors, the black appearing for the most part in 

 Bubterminal spots or blotches. The primaries (which are but just sprout- 

 ing) are black, broadly tipped with pale rusty. Under parts clothed 

 thickly with iluffy whitish down, beneath which, on the breast and sides, 

 true feathers of a dull white barred with dark brown are beginning to 

 appear. From a specimen in the cabinet of Mr. N. C. Brown, taken at 

 Deering, Me., June 29, 1875. It seems probable that young of this species 

 — and perhaps of the whole family, like those of the Tetraonidm and some 

 others — pass through a stage of plumage previous to the usual primal 

 one. The specimen above described is, strictly speaking, in process of 

 transition between the two, and still retains patches of the soft whitish 

 down which must have constituted its entire covering at an earlier period. 



91. Coccyzus erythrophthalmus. 



First plumage : female. Above lustrous plumbeous-ashy, feathers upon 

 the crown, nape, and anterior part of the back, narrowly tipped with pale 

 ashy ; those of the interscapular region and rump, together with the scap- 

 ulars and upper tail-coverts, more broadly so with ashy- white. Outer edges 

 of quills light rufous. Beneath delicate pearl-gray, lightest on the abdo- 

 men, slightly tinged with pale brownish-yellow on the throat and breast. 

 From a specimen in my collection shot in Lincoln, Mass., June 17, 1871. 

 Autumnal specimens (probably only the young birds) differ from spring 

 adults in having the naked skin around the eye yellow instead of red. 



92. Ficus villosus.* 

 First plumage: male. Forehead spotted thickly with white ; crown dull 

 scarlet, each feather subterminally spotted with white ; nuchal crescent 



* As stated elsewhere, the young of most, if not all of the "Woodpeckers, 

 regularly moult the wing and tail feathers with the rest of the first plumage 

 No exceptions to this rule occur among large series of the common North 

 American species examined, and it may probably be found to hold good among 

 all excepting, perhaps, some highly specialized groups. Another peculiar feature 

 in the early development of the species most thoroughly investigated, and one 

 which is perhaps common to all the members of this family, is the fact that a 



