66 RUDOLF SÖDERBERG, STUDIES OF THE BIRDS IN NORTH WEST AUSTRALIA. 
female by the absence of pale-yellow watering in the tail and the upper- and under- 
rump, which are dark-gray and watered only in dirty-white. The back has acquired 
the darker feathers of the male. The young specimen 2 is an almost fully-moulted male, 
whose plumage differs from that of the full-grown male in having pale-white watering 
only in the upper tail-coverts, pygidium and lateral tail-feathers. These watered 
parts are just at the change, some gray feathers are sticking out on the upper-rump. 
The young female is like the adult female. 
Moulting. — These moulting specimens show the ordinary dull, worn dress 
and mixture of colour, especially on the back, where old and new feathers alternate. 
The old are bleached, dull pale-brown, the new darker brown. Two specimens, old males, 
were shot at an interval of a month. The latter is fully-moulted without any mixture 
of feathers, the former with old feathers still remaining, worn at the edges in such 
a way that they appear to be fringed. 
The details are: on the crown of the head and the cheeks we can trace two 
different ways of moulting: 1? the top is knocked off as in moulting of the edgings, 
29 new feathers are developed out of sheathes (pins). The former generally have 
partly yellow, partly brown colour, the latter are clearly yellow, but there are also 
pins of the long yellow- and brown-coloured feathers in the crest. Among the biggest 
wing-coverts two new ones are coming out as pins (the spec. no. 2). 
Moulting-season. — Moulting takes place during Dec. and Jan. One spe- 
cimen, a male ”h, is fully-moulted, another specimen '"/12 (no. 2) is in typical moulting 
plumage. 
Appeared in rather small flocks at Derby, Nooncanbah (Fitzroy river), Meda 
and other places, but was not seen at Mowla Downs. 
Spathopterus alexandr&e GouLp. 
Math. handl. nr 330. 
Seen at Mowla Downs by Mr. LoUuGE, who also informed me that it seems to 
live on the seeds of a grass, growing in the desert regions, called »kad-jadda» by the 
natives, who used it themselves in the same way. 
Ptistes erythropterus Gw. 
Math. handl. n:r 331. 3 juv., 9 (juv.) Derby, Kimb. /,0, 17/10 1910, moult.; S ad., 8 ad., ibid. 
28/, 1911; J ad., 9 ad. Meda, Kimb. ?/s, $/s 1911; J ad. Hot Spring, Fitzroy r. !/» 1911, moult.; SJUV:, 
Q ad. Nooncanbah, ibid. ?9/:2 1910, moult.; SJ ad., 2 28 ad. Beagle bay, Dampier 1. ?0/e, "/7 1911. 
Juvenals. — Two younger birds SS like the female, a third one a young male 
in transitional and moulting plumage. The crown of the head and the back are in 
strong moulting, the back with old green feathers mixed in with the white ones. 
The upper smaller wing-coverts mixed in with red and green feathers. The crown 
of the head bluish green as in the adults. 
