114 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



specimens from Devil's Gate, Sweetwater, and Green river; 

 Bond reports them from Cheyenne ; Jesurun reports them com- 

 mon at Douglas. The National Museum records include the 

 following: No. 88087 taken by Shufeldt at Fort Laramie, 

 No. 71278 taken at Fort Bridger by Shufeldt, Xo. 8221 taken 

 at Fort Laramie, and No. 38514 taken at Laramie peak. There 

 are a half dozen skins in the University collection. Five of 

 them were taken on the Laramie plains and one by West of 

 Buffalo. They breed in considerable numbers on the Laramie 

 plains at elevations varying from 7,250 to 7,500 feet. Aiken 

 reports them from near Sherman. 



498. Agelaius phoeniceus (Linn.). 

 Red-winged Blackbird. 



Summer resident ; rather common, but never abundant. 

 They nest with the Yellow-headed Blackbird about the marshes 

 and lakes and also with Brewer's along the small streams up to 

 an elevation of 8,000 feet. The Red-wings nesting with Brew- 

 er's are different from those found about the marshes. The 

 red patches on their wings are a brick color, and most of the 

 feathers of the back and vings of the male are edged with 

 rufous. Although these differences are persistent Mr. Ridg- 

 way refers this bird to phoeniceus. In Wyoming the Red-wings 

 do not gather in vast flocks as they do further east and al- 

 though they eat some grain, the insects and weed seeds they 

 devour pay for the grain eaten a hundred- fold. F. E. L. Beal 

 has the following to say of their food (Bui. 13, U. S. D. Ag., 

 Div. of Biol., p. 32) : 



'"Weed seed is apparently the favorite food of the Red- 

 wings, since the total amount of grass and weeds is 54.6 per 

 cent, more than half of the year's food, and more than four 

 times the total grain consumption. These seeds are the prin- 

 cipal article of diet of the birds in the northern states in the 

 early spring and late fall, and the stomachs received from the 

 south during the winter are filled with them almost exclusive- 



ly. 



