178 BULLETIN 107, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Plumages.—When first hatched the young murre is covered with 
short down which varies from “ bone brown” to “ hair brown ” above, 
almost black on the head and neck, except that the throat is mottled. 
with white; the under parts are white; the head and neck are sparsely 
covered with long, hairlike filaments, grayish white or buffy white 
in color, giving the bird a coarse, hairy appearance. The juvenal 
plumage is acquired when the young bird is about half grown and is 
not very different, except in texture, from the first winter plumage, 
dark “seal brown” above, including the sides of the head and neck, 
the throat mottled with dusky and whitish and the under parts white; 
there are no white tips on the secondaries in this plumage and the 
bill is very small. This first plumage is replaced, by the end of Sep- 
tember, by the first winter plumage, which is similar to the adult 
winter plumage. Young birds may be recognized, however, by their 
smaller and lighter colored bills, by their mottled throats, and by 
having less white on the sides of the head and neck. A partial molt 
takes place in the spring, at which a plumage similar to the adult 
nuptial plumage is assumed; but young birds are still recognizable 
by their bills until after the postnuptial molt, when the adult plumage 
is assumed. 
Adults have a complete postnuptial molt beginning sometimes in 
August but often not until September; I have seen birds beginning 
to molt as early as August 2 and others which had not started to molt 
on September 11; I have also seen birds in full spring plumage in 
December. Adults in winter can be recognized by having larger 
and blacker bills, white throats, and more white on the sides of the 
head and neck than in young birds, although the latter character is 
not very well marked. The adult winter plumage is worn for a short 
time only, as the prenuptial molt sometimes begins as early as Novem- 
ber and is often completed in December. In studying large series 
of California murres I have been puzzled to decide whether certain 
fall specimens were molting into or out of the winter plumage, and I 
am led to infer that the birds are in nearly continual molt throughout 
the fall, and that many individuals never acquire the full winter 
plumage, as the two molts may overlap. Probably most of the birds 
in winter plumages in collections are young birds, as the prenuptial 
molt in young birds does not occur until spring. 
Before leaving the subject of plumages we might consider briefly 
the status of the ringed murre (Uria ringvia), which now seems to 
be regarded as a plumage phase of the common species. The evi- 
dence is puzzling and far from conclusive, though most of it seems 
to indicate that the ringed murre, with its conspicuous white spec- 
tacles, is a distinct species. Macgillivray (1852) treats it as a doubt- 
ful species under the name Uria lacrymans, but says that, in search- 
