31 



alike. Full justice has hardly been done by writers to the adidt plumage 

 of this species. Among the males, it is true, only a comparatively small 

 amount of variation obtains, and the full dress is always acquired the first 

 spring. But the females in spring plumage differ to a degree which seems 

 almost endless. This mutation is, however, chiefly in relation to the color 

 and markings of the crown. Thus, out of thirteen females before me, all 

 collected in the breeding season, only six have the full patch of crimson 

 upon the crown. In one specimen the whole top of the head is spotted 

 thickly and evenly with brownish-white. Another exhibits two lateral 

 patches of brownish-orange which extend nearly to the occiput, while a 

 third has a few scarlet feathers upon the forehead. The remainder are 

 variously marked over the crown with mixed yellow and crimson. This 

 excessive variability is probably a purely individual tendency to aberration 

 from a given type, as several spring females not as yet through the 

 moult, and plainly shown by the remains of the previous plumage to 

 be birds entering upon their first breeding season, have fully developed 

 crown-patches of pure crimson. 



97. Centurus carolinus. 



First plwmage .v female. Crown dull ashy, each feather tipped broadly 

 with plumbeous ; nape with a narrow, inconspicuous collar of pale dull 

 brick-red. Rest of upper parts marked as in the adult, with, however, a 

 brownish tinge in the transverse white bands. Abdomen dull saffron ; rest 

 of under parts brownish-ashy, nearly every feather in a broad band across 

 the breast with a narrow, obscure shaft-streak * of purplish-brown. From 

 a specimen in my collection obtained by Mr. W. D. Scott, at Coalburgh, 

 "W. Va., July 23, 1872. 



98. Colaptes auratus. 



Firstplvmiage : male. Crown washed with dull red ; nuchal band dull 

 scarlet. Otherwise similar to the adult, but with the throat tinged with 

 ash and the spots upon the under parts dusky instead of black. From a 

 specimen in my collection taken at Cambridge, Mass., July 6, 1873. 



The female in first plumage I have not seen, but two young females 

 before me, which have nearly perfected their autumnal plumage, have 

 each a well-defined mv^tache, — not black, however, as in the male of any 

 age, but of a dark plumbeous color. Upon raising the feathers, many of 

 them are found to be nearly black at their bases, and a few entirely black 

 ones appear. I have seen two other females, both young birds in imper- 

 fect autumnal dress, which had similar dark mustaches. It seems not 

 unlikely that many females of this species may in first plumage be marked 

 nearly like the males. 



* Several Woodpeckers, unmarked beneath in niaturer stages, show a tendency 

 to spots or streaks upon the sides and breast when in first plumage. 



