374 THE FUK SEALS OF THE PRIBILOF ISLANDS. 



two young collected ou August 7 (about two months old), the necks have a great 

 number of these long, white flloplumes projecting beyond the down (fig. 9). These 

 average about 12 millimeters in length, and are also to be found sparingly all over 

 the body, especially on the thighs. I am at a loss to interpret these feather struc- 

 tures. They are evidently degenerate and homologous with those so abundant about 

 the bases of the larger feathers of eagles, etc., but in this instance they precede the true 

 feather growth. The feathers of the white thigh patches of the fully adult generally 

 begin to loosen by June, so that few specimens are perfect in. that respect among 

 those taken on June 13. On August 7, good-sized young were found hiding among 

 the rocks, and two were collected, Nos. 118726, 118727, 2 9 ; one of these, 28 inches long, 

 is still in the downy stage on the body, but the wings and scapulars are well feath- 

 ered, and some new feathers are showing down the breast. Others are to be seen all 

 over the body upon parting the down. The tail is well grown. The down is darkest, 

 sooty seal brown, toward the tail, gradually changing to drab gray toward and on the 

 head. The other specimen is older and has lost the down on the body and partly 

 up the neck, where it has been replaced by the shorter and much-paler new growth 

 of down. This change takes place all over the body, the long, brown, iirst down 

 giving way to the new true feathers after they have grown for a time, and a new, 

 short, whitish down, which evidently is permanent until the next year's molt. 



Avery small nestling (No. 62533, St. Paul, July 2, 1872, H. W.Elliott) is scantily 

 clothed with dark brown down, it being especially abundant on the thighs and scanty 

 elsewhere. Most of the down is still bound with the remains of the sheaths, but on 

 the thighs it is dry and fluffy. On one of the thighs and on the neck downward all 

 over the underbody are single white downs scattered about somewhat evenly. Ou 

 the other thigh there is but one. A few white downs can be seen on my two larger 

 specimens when the long dark down is parted, but there are very few. 



The absence of down attached to the tips of the new feather growth of the cor- 

 morant and which is so conspiciuous in many species, especially in the higher birds, 

 led me to examine these specimens closely. The sequence of feather growth on the 

 body of the cormorant is as follows. The bird is hatched nude. In a few days down 

 appears on the feather tracts of the dorsal surface, the growth gradually spreading 

 until the whole body is covered with the down, the head being the last to be com- 

 pleted. This down increases in length as the bird grows, reaching a length on the 

 back of about 24 millimeters. When this down has reached its full length and abun- 

 dance, our young bird is about one-third grown. Then the new plumage contour 

 feathers appear, as I have described. As these new feathers increase in length this 

 first down loosens and drops out and another downy growth follows. Thus in the 

 young cormorant, before it has become fully feathered, there have developed two dis- 

 tinct downs, structurally similar, but differing in color and length, and functionally, 

 if such a word can be applied here, dissimilar. These two down growths are common 

 to many other birds, especially the hawks, but there the first is attached to the tips of 

 the first plumage feathers as they grow out, whereas in the Steganopodes the opposite 

 is the case. Hence I have formed the opinion that the first down growth of the cor- 

 morant is homologous with the first down growth of other groups. An examination 

 and comparison of many specimens of young birds of this order reveals similar con- 

 ditions to those of the cormorant. Hence the conclusion is inevitable that in this 

 Older we have early plumage conditions quite different to those that obtatin in all the 

 other groups. 



