2l8 
Dwigiit, Sequence of Plumages. 
r Auk 
Ljuly 
and soft at this stage, even the flight-feathers being less com- 
pactly rounded out terminally and deficient in pigment as com- 
pared with those of adults. 
Within a few weeks, the plumage of the third stage, commonly 
known as the 1 autumnal,’ has replaced that of the second, which 
is in most species quite evanescent. The flight-feathers, however, 
are retained throughout the following winter and summer and are 
not renewed until the first postnuptial molt occurs, about a year 
after the birds have left the nest. The primaries, their upper 
coverts, the secondaries (usually the tertiaries), the alulae, and the 
rectrices are the only feathers retained of the ‘ first ’ plumage. The 
body feathers assumed resemble closely in structure and pattern 
those of the adult at the same season, and are worn during the 
winter until the end of March or April, when together with the 
wing-coverts they are renewed by a prenuptial molt, young and 
old becoming indistinguishable except by the worn, dingy wings 
and tail of the young bird. 
The young bird has now reached a fourth stage, the plumage of 
the first breeding season, which in the Myrtle Warbler is made up 
of parts of three, — the flight-feathers, matured in the second 
stage, a few of the third stage, retained chiefly on the posterior 
parts of the body, and the new feathers assumed in spring. 
At the end of the breeding season, the first nuptial, a complete 
postnuptial molt occurs which renders old and young indistinguish- 
able, adults entering a fifth stage separable from the third chiefly 
by the blacker wings and tail, and brighter wing edgings, a dif- 
ference that holds good for a twelvemonth, although it is not 
infallible and cannot always be made out. The fifth stage of 
plumage is worn until the following spring when the prenuptial 
molt occurs, involving only the body plumage and wing-coverts, 
as in the young bird. 
A sixth stage, the adult breeding plumage, is the last one recog- 
nizable in the Myrtle Warbler, although it is well to bear in mind 
that a seventh, corresponding to winter plumage, and an eighth, 
corresponding to summer plumage, occurs, and so on until the 
death of the bird. Fortunately this species passes both winter 
and summer mostly within the borders of the United States so 
that I have been able to examine large numbers of specimens 
