Brief Notes. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FIRST PLUMAGE IN VARIOUS SPE- 
CIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 
BY WILLIAM BREVfSTER. 
IV* 
78. Agelseus phoeniceus. 
First plumage : female. Above dark seal-brown : every feather of the 
crown, nape, and interscapular region, with the greater and middle wing- 
coverts, primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, edged and tipped with 
brownish-fulvous. Beneath light yellowish-brown, thickly and broadly 
streaked everywhere with dull black. Sides of throat and head, including 
a considerable space around the eye, bare skin (of a brownish orange-color 
in the dried specimen), with a few scattering pin-feathers. From a speci- 
men in my collection obtained at Cambridge, Mass., June 24, 1872. Males 
in first plumage before me differ but little from the individual above de- 
scribed. All have the bare spaces on the sides of the throat, although 
these are probably feathered before the first moult is begun. A male 
in transitional dress (collected at Ipswich, Mass., July 15, 1874), with the 
head fully feathered, has the throat dull brownish-yellow, with a strong 
tinge of the same color on the breast. The wing and tail feathers are re- 
newed during the first moult. 
Autumnal plumage : young male. Crown dark brown, with a faint 
rusty edging upon each feather ; nape brownish-yellow, with a rusty tinge, 
finely spotted with dark brown ; interscapular region, and a broad outer 
edging upon the secondaries and tertiaries, deep dull reddish-brown, each 
feather having a broad V-shaped mark of dull black. Rump glossy black, 
every feather edged with fulvous ashy ; shoulder dull red with black spot- 
ting ; middle coverts fulvous ; greater coverts tipped with the same color. 
Superciliary stripe brownish-yellow. A space anterior to and beneath the 
eye dusky black. Entire under parts black, each feather upon the ab- 
domen edged broadly with pale ashy, elsewhere with yellowish-brown. 
The light edging of the feathers gives the under parts a conspicuously 
scutellate appearance. From a specimen in my collection taken at Cam- 
bridge, Mass., October 6, 1876. This plumage (although not to my knowl- 
edge previously described by writers) is the characteristic one of the young 
in autumn. I am unable to state if the adult male retains his uniform 
black coloring at all seasons. A remarkable variation from the typical 
plumage is afforded by a fine adult male in my cabinet, which has a broad 
crescentic patch of pale yellow tinged with rose-color upon the breast. 
Nor is this specimen unique, for I have seen several others with a similar 
but less conspicuous mark. It probably represents an exceptionally high 
condition or phase of ornamentation, like the commoner one of scarlet or 
yellow wing-markings, in the Scarlet Tanager ( Pyranga rubra). Very old 
females of A. phceniceus have the throat a delicate peach-color ; illustrated 
by several specimens in my cabinet from Nantucket and Ipswich, Mass. 
i September 17 a fine Albino Red- winged 
;] Blackbird was brought to me by Frank 
-Brown, who shot it that day at Clear Lake, 
north of the city. It is a perfect Albino, 
pure white with the exception of the lesser 
I wing coverts, which are a delicate pink ; eyes 
pink. This handsome fellow was with a 
flock of about two hundred Blackbirds, all 
of normal color. It measured : Length, 
j 8 .io; extent, 12 . 00 ; wing 4.00 ; tail, 3.01 ; 
bill, 0 . 60 . 
The Smithsonian display at Chicago was 
I alone worth the expense of the trip. 
Carl Fritz- Henning". 
O.& O.Voi.l3,Oofcl893 p.143 
On February 12th, we had brought to us to 
mount, a partial albino Redwing, which was 
| only interesting because the cause of the albi- 
nism became evident on skinning. This bird 
had the two first primaries on the left wing 
and a small patch of feathers on the left side of 
the breast white. On skinning, the whole left 
side of the breast was found to be in a diseased 
I condition, smelling almost putrid ; the cause of 
which was evidently a wound, probably a gun- 
shot wound, situated directly under the w r hite 
patch. In spite of this, however, the bird was 
in good plumage, not at all thin or emaciated. 
O.&O, XII, Mar. 1887. p. 
Bull. N. O.O, 3, Oct., 1878, p, H /74). 
Albinism and Melanism in North 
American Birds, Ruthven Deane, 
A. phmniceus, J'l, 4^ 7^ 5 .. ^ It s- . 
BmlLN.O.O. l.April, 1876, p .22 
Albino Redwing Blackbird, ( Ageloeus 
phoeniceus). — From a flock of Redwing 
“ Starlings ” I shot an Albino of a beauti- 
ful Golden Yellow except the wiDgs which 
are white. The iris and tarsus were pink. 
—Dr. F. W. Coding, Kaneville, III, Sep- 
tember 1, 1881. O.&O VTL.:.- •r.ISSS.p.^ 
SV 
An albino Red-Winged Blackbird, (Agelams 
phoeniceus) . has also been received here. The bird 
is pure white with the exception of the red 
patches on the wing, which are normal, and a 
very slight reddish tinge on the head. — A. W. 
Anthony, Benner, Got. r\ - . , . 
’ O.& O. X, Oct. 1885. p./i& 
