BIRDS OF NEW YORK 243 



Euphagus carolinus (Aluller) 

 Rusty Blackbird 



Plate 73 



T urdus carolinus Muller. Xatursyst. Suppl. 1776. 140 

 Quiscalus ferrugineus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 137, fig. 50 

 Euphagus carolinus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. p. 238. No. 509 

 euphagus Gr., a "good feeder"; carolinus, of Carolina 



Description. Male: Shiny black with greenish metallic iridescence. 

 In high plumage no rusty showing on the edges of the feathers; but in the fall 

 the upper parts are more or less extensively edged with rusty and the under parts 

 with ocherous buff and whitish. In specimens taken late in the spring this 

 rusty has not entirely worn off from the edges of the feathers; but in the 

 very highest plumage the bird is entirely a lustrous black. Female: Dark 

 slaty gra y; upper parts with more or less greenish reflections, more extensively 

 edged with rusty in the fall than is the case with the male and the under 

 parts sometimes almost a uniform ocherous on the throat and breast. 

 This edging of rusty and ocherous shows in the female as late as April 

 and May in New York specimens. Iris straw-colored; feet and legs blackish. 



Length 9-9.6 inches; extent 13. 5-14. 5; wing 4.6-4.8; tail 3.52; bill .91; 

 tarsus 1.06; weight 2-2.5 ounces. 



Distribution. This species inhabits eastern North America, breeding 

 in the boreal zone from Alaska, central Keewatin and northern Ungava 

 to central Alberta, central Ontario, northern New York and Maine, and 

 winters from the Ohio river and the Delaware valley to the Gulf of Mexico. 

 In New York this species is a common transient visitant in all parts of 

 the State, arriving from the south from the 1st to the 20th of March in 

 the southern counties; in western New York, from March 10 to March 30, 

 passing on to the north from April 20 to May 10. In the fall it returns 

 from the north in western New York from the 10th to the 20th of September; 

 in the vicinity of New York City, from September 20 to October 10; and 

 departs for the south in November, usually remaining the last of all our 

 blackbirds and going only when the marshes are frozen over. The Rusty 

 blackbird is a summer resident of the wilder portions of the Adirondacks, 

 especially in northern Hamilton and Herkimer counties and the south- 

 eastern portion of St Lawrence county. Its nest has been found on Raquette 

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