BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 275 



nest to lay five eggs, she would try her bill and feet at building 

 a nest for herself exclusively. 



These birds distribute themselves over the entire State, so 

 that they may be seen almost daily in their favorite localities 

 until late in the autumn as already mentioned, but at no time 

 in such vast numbers as Coues has described them in some of 

 the other western states. Their remarkable disappearance in 

 August which he speaks of (in his "Birds of the Northwest,'') has 

 never occurred here to my knowledge, although I have noticed 

 that they were less active during the period of their moulting. 

 Mr. Washburn found them common in his explorations of the 

 ornithology of the Red river valley in the middle of August, 

 and in Otter Tail county on the 17th of October. 



My memorandum says for one year, "Very common Novem- 

 ber loth in the middle and western part of Hennepin county." 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Second quill longest; first scarcely shorter; tail nearly even, 

 or very slightly rounded; male with the head, neck and ante- 

 rior half of the breast, light chocolate-brown, rather lighter 

 above; rest of body lustrous black, with a violet- purple gloss 

 next to the brown, of steel-blue on the back, and of green 

 elsewhere; bill short and stout, and about two-thirds the length 

 of the head; claws rather small. 



Length, 8; wing, 4.50; tail, 3.40. 



(Female light olivaceous all over, lighter on the head and 

 beneath; bill and feet black.) 



Habitat, U. S. from Atlantic to Pacific oceans. 



XANTHOCEPHALUS XANTHOCEPHALLS 



(Bonaparte). (497.) 



YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 



Whatever their numbers in other western localities, the Yel- 

 low-headed Blackbirds are far from abundant in any portion 

 of Minnesota yet explored. 



Neither are they even approximately uniformly distributed, 

 although all of the conditions favorable for them are found in 

 nearly every considerable portion of the State. 



The males are so large and their markings so conspicuous 

 that they cannot escape attention even when their numbers are 

 very few, and they confine themselves so closely to their breed- 

 ing places that whoever finds them once is pretty sure of find- 

 ing them at the same places the next time he seeks them. 



