Changes in the Plumage of Geothlypis trichas. — In the interesting 
review in the October ‘Auk’ (1885), of the tenth volume of the British 
Museum Catalogue of Birds, Mr. Allen very appropriately takes occa- 
sion to correct the gross error, into which most of the books have 
fallen, in regard to the winter plumage of the males of so common 
and extensively distributed a species as Geothlypis trichas. The error in 
question is a statement to the effect that in winter the adult male loses 
the conspicuous black and ashy markings about the head, and takes on 
the uniform olivaceous and brownish colors of the upper parts of the 
female. In making this correction, however, Mr. Allen, I believe, does 
not go far enough, for according to my observations the males not only 
never assume the plumage of the female after having once attained the 
masculine livery, but young birds moult directly into a plumage approach- 
ing that of the adult male (which will be indicated in detail farther on), 
when they begin in August to shed the well-known fluffy ‘first plumage,’ 
with its greenish and ochreish tints, brownish wing-coverts, etc. 
There are, Mr, Allen states, instances in which the young male has 
been taken in winter in the female plumage, but these, I think, should be 
regarded as exceptional. I have examined very carefully the two large 
series of this bird (including Mr. Brewster’s Occident alis , which, for the 
purpose we have in hand, maybe ‘lumped’ with trichas ) contained in the 
collection of the National Museum, and in that of Mr. Henshaw, besides 
ten or a dozen other specimens, amounting altogether to 144 individuals, 
and have failed to find a single winter male without the adult black and 
ashy markings. But I did find three spring males with these characters 
so imperfectly developed as to indicate, probably, that the birds had passed 
the preceding winter in the plumage of the female. 
The changes in plumage when the young male begins his first moult, 
which occurs in August, in the latitude of Washington, may be briefly 
summarized as follows : — The feathers of the head and middle of the 
throat appear to be the first that are lost. The latter are replaced by yel- 
low ones (not so bright, however, as in the adult), which at first are to be 
seen in linear blotches. Those of the head give place to a new set, of a 
fine chocolate brown color, shading off into olivaceous towards the nape in 
most birds, in some, however, extending over almost the whole of the 
upper parts. Before these two changes are completed, the first black 
feathers begin to show themselves in the maxillary region, and they grad- 
ually spread into an irregularly shaped patch on the sides of the head and 
neck. Nearly all of these black feathers are tipped with ash, the amount 
of which appears to vary with the individual. At this stage the black is 
quite similar to that which adorns the breast of G. Philadelphia ; and in 
this plumage the bird is the one described bj- Audubon (Orn. Biog., I, 
i 832, 124. pi. 24) as Sylvia roscoe , and is very common during the latter 
part of August and in September. The next step in this somewhat pro- 
tracted change begins in September, when the black feathers make their 
appearance on the forehead at the base of the upper mandible, whence 
they continue to extend until the area usually covered with black is at- 
tained; and the border of hoary ash now appears sharply defined against 
the black mask and the greenish olive and brown of the rest of the upper 
parts. The ashy tips to the black feathers have now entirely disappeared. 
A New Orleans specimen (No. 90,665) taken November 22, undoubtedly 
a young bird of the year, illustrates this phase very perfectly. No. 2782, 
(Coll. H. W. II.), collected November 1, shows a stage preceding the 
last; the soft chocolate brown covers the whole back of the head, and the 
ashy band, which seems to be a very variable character, is very much 
restricted. 
It may be well to state that of the 144 specimens examined of trichas 
and occidentalism 24 of them were young August and autumnal males in 
various transitional stages of plumage, and there are none of them taken 
later than August 20 which do not show some traces of the changes above 
indicated. There is another peculiarity of young fall birds, female as 
well as male, which seems to be very constant, first pointed out. I be- 
lieve, by Professor Baird (Rev. Am. Bds. 1864, 221), namely, the much 
lighter color of the bill as compared with spring birds. 
During the past summer and autumn, the writer enjoyed excellent facili- 
ties for observing the Yellow-throat in his native haunts. A favorite col- 
lecting ground was. an old forest-surrounded field, near Ellicott City. 
Md., through the centre of which ran a brook of considerable size, whose 
banks wire fringed with such a dense and luxuriant growth of bushes and 
tangled vines as to meet over the middle of the stream, forming, as any 
‘bird-man’ knows, a paradise for Yellow-throats, Chats, and other thicket- 
loving species. On three or four different occasions during the latter part 
of August I penetrated this tunnel of verdure, and by employing the well- 
known ‘screeping’ device — making a noise-machine out of the back of the 
hand and the lips — attracted the usual mob of curious, scolding, and 
anxious little birds. The young Yellow-throats were particularly numer- 
ous in these excited assemblages, and once I counted seven young males 
with the incipient black masks, and two young females in sight at the 
same time, the most distant of them not twenty feet from the spot where 
I was sitting. During the following month (September), I found the 
young males in the transitional plumage quite common in Kentucky, 
where I collected a good deal. 
There is one specimen in the National Museum collection that doubtless 
deserves special mention in this connection. The label thereof reads as 
follows : 
“66,643. Geothlypis trichas $ ad. No. 104. Cleveland, Ohio, May it, 
1874. J- S. Newberry, M. D. Large testicles stated to have been found. 
Given to Smithsonian Institution by E. Coues.” 
Taken by itself the label presents nothing remarkable, but tied to the 
leg of this particular bird it affords us one of those by no means uncommon 
ornithological puzzles, which, in the language of Dundreary, “no fellow 
can find out.” The bird is in the full spring plumage of the female , with- 
out a single trace of black or ash about the head. — Charles Wickliffe 
Beckham, Washington, D. C. Auk, 3, April, 1886. p, X 
