in Various Species of North American Birds. 181 
transverse bands of yellowish- white ; rest of upper parts like the adult. 
Throat brownish- white ; abdomen pale brownish-yellow ; breast and sides 
dull brownish-olive, thickly barred with dusky. From a specimen in my 
collection shot at Upton, Me., August 6, 1873. 
The first plumage of this species is worn for a longer period than that 
of any other bird with which I am acquainted. Some specimens taken as 
late as October and November seem not to have fully perfected their first 
moult, many of the earlier feathers being still retained. In this condition 
they present a curiously patched appearance, and scarcely any two are 
alike. Full justice has hardly been done by writers to the adult 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 plumage : female. Crown dull ashy, each feather tipped broadly 
with plumbeous ; nape with a narrow, inconspicuous collar of pale dull 
brick-red. Best 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. 
First plumage : 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. 
* Several Woodpeckers, unmarked beneath in maturer stages, show a tendency 
to spots or streaks upon the sides and breast when in first plumage. 
