Voi.xvn 
1899 J 
Dwight, Sequence of Plumages. 
219 
taken every month in the year. The sequence of plumages is 
beautifully shown, and it is time it should be more widely recog- 
nized as a concrete fact. 
The Yellow-breasted Chat ( Icteria virens) is in some respects 
apparently unique among our Warblers. Ihere is the first or 
downy stage, and the second, which is the one figured on the 
plate. The yellow spots represent the coming feathers of the 
third stage, the autumnal or winter plumage. Unlike the Myrtle 
Warbler, a complete molt, judging from the few specimens 
available, takes place, including the wings and the tail. No 
other Warbler of nearly forty species examined exhibits this 
peculiarity, although it is common enough in other families. 
This plumage assumed is practically indistinguishable from 
that of the adult, the black of the lores and suborbital region 
being as a rule less intense. It is worn without molt throughout 
the following winter and summer. 
Consequently the fourth stage of plumage is simply the third 
plus a certain amount of inconspicuous wear. 
The fifth stage follows the postnuptial molt, and the sixth is the 
fifth modified by molt. All of these stages may not be traced 
in all individuals, for the depth of the black of the lores is a 
variable and slender character, but it will be observed that the 
sequence of plumages obtains even when we cannot distinguish 
with certainty one from another. 
The lesson to be learned from these two species is a valuable 
one, and many other species teach the same thing, namely, that 
plumages succeed each other in definite sequence, those of young 
birds overlapping in their development. To number the different 
stages consecutively has obvious disadvantages, and the terms now 
in common use are inexact, so that some new scheme should be 
devised to meet the exigencies of the case. As a solution of the 
difficulty, I offer the following names which conform, so far as is 
compatible with clearness, to every-day usage already sanctioned. 
1. Natal Down. This is a first stage, no matter whether the 
covering of the young bird in the nest be downy or hairy, scanty 
or abundant, evanescent or persistent. 
2. Juvenal Plumage. The name I propose as a substitute for 
< first'’ or ‘ nestling ’ plumage is definite and suggestive of the 
