Brewster’s Descriptions of First Plumages . 
175 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FIRST PLUMAGE IN VARIOUS SPE- 
CIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
IV* 
78. Agelaeus phceniceus. 
First 'plumage : female. Above dark seal-brown : every feather of the 
crown, nape, and interscapnlar region, with the greater and middle wing- 
coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, edged and tipped with 
brownish-fulvous. Beneath light yellowish-brown, thickly and broadly 
streaked everywhere with dull black. Sides of throat and head, including 
a considerable space around the eye, bare skin (of a brownish orange-color 
in the dried specimen), with a few scattering pin-feathers. From a speci- 
men in my collection obtained at Cambridge, Mass., June 24, 1872. Males 
in first plumage before me differ but little from the individual above de- 
scribed. All have the bare spaces on the sides of the throat, although 
these are probably feathered before the first moult is begun. A male 
in transitional dress (collected at Ipswich, Mass., July 15, 1874), with the 
head fully feathered, has the throat dull brownish-yellow, with a strong 
tinge of the same color on the breast. The wing and tail feathers are re- 
newed during the first moult. 
Autumnal plumage : young male. Crown dark brown, with a faint 
rusty edging upon each feather ; nape brownish-yellow, with a rusty tinge, 
finely spotted with dark brown ; interscapular region, and a broad outer 
edging upon the secondaries and tertiaries, deep dull reddish-brown, each 
feather having a broad V-shaped mark of dull black. Rump glossy black, 
every feather edged with fulvous ashy ; shoulder dull red with black spot- 
ting ; middle coverts fulvous ; greater coverts tipped with the same color. 
Superciliary stripe brownish-yellow. A space anterior to and beneath the 
eye dusky black. Entire under parts black, each feather upon the ab- 
domen edged broadly with pale ashy, elsewhere with yellowish-brown. 
The light edging of the feathers gives the under parts a conspicuously 
scutellate appearance. From a specimen in my collection taken at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., October 6, 1876. This plumage (although not to my knowl- 
edge previously described by writers) is the characteristic one of the young 
in autumn. I am unable to state if the adult male retains his uniform 
black coloring at all seasons. A remarkable variation from the typical 
plumage is afforded by a fine adult male in my cabinet, which has a broad 
* For Parts I, II, and III, see this volume, pp. 15-23, 56-64, 115-123. 
