Descriptions of First Plumage of Cer- 
tain North xi.m, Bbs. Wn. Brewster. 
65. Melospiza palustris. 
First plumage : female. Crown blackish, each feather obscurely tipped 
with lighter. Rest of upper parts reddish-brown, every feather streaked 
centrally with dull black. Beneath dull ferruginous-brown, fading to 
soiled white on the abdomen, streaked thickly but narrowly with dull 
black everywhere excepting on the abdomen. Sides of head dusky, with 
irregular patches of dark brown. No appreciable ashy anywhere. From 
a specimen in my collection taken at Cambridge, Mass., June 24, 1872. 
Specimens in first plumage show considerable variation in the amount of 
streaking beneath. Some are so faintly marked that at a little distance 
they appear entirely plain. They may be at once distinguished from ex- 
amples of M. melodia in corresponding plumage by the much darker cast 
of the upper surface (especially of the crown) and by the finer character of 
the markings beneath. 
Bull. N. O.O. 3, July. 1878. p, / 20 - 
Note on “Passerculus caboti.” — This name only occurs in Baird, 
Brewer, and Ridgway’s Hist, of N. A. Birds, Vol. II, plate xlvi, fig. 9 — 
there being no description or text accompanying the figure, which is taken 
for specimen No. 62,373, Mus. Smiths. Inst., from Nahant, Mass. The 
bird is in facta young Melospiza palustris , in a plumage hitherto unrecog- 
nized, in which there is a decided yellow loral spot, and a vague yellowish 
suffusion of the cheeks and throat. I lately received a Swamp Sparrow 
from S. W. Willard, of West DePere, Wisconsin, who was in doubt of the 
identification, as my “Key” says of the species, “no yellow anywhere.’ 
The yellow spot is quite strong — about as in Ammodromus maritimus , and 
nearly as bright as in Zonotrichia albicollis. On examining the type of 
“ Passerculus caboti ,” through Mr. Ridgway’s attentions, I find it to be the 
same thing. — Elliott Coues, Washington, D ■ C. 
Bull, N. 0.<3. 8, Jan. 1883. p. ^ 
