Rusty Blackbird 315 



Breeding comraences about the beginning of June in 

 the central part of the State ; Aiken found a nest nearly 

 complete on June 6th, in El Paso co., while Dille (03) 

 gives June 12th as the average date for fresh eggs about 

 Denver. The nest, a very common object in cotton-wood 

 trees in and around Colorado Springs, is pensile, being 

 suspended from the horizontal branch of a tree at a 

 good height, twelve to twenty feet above the ground, 

 and is often quite inaccessible. The nest is woven of 

 shreds of wild flax, of the inner bark of various trees 

 and such-like material, and is lined with horsehair, wool, 

 vegetable down or even moss. The eggs, five or six 

 in number, are elongate and whitish in colour, marked 

 with fine hair-lines and streaks and blotches of brown. 

 They measure -94 x -63. The female alone incubates, 

 and only one brood is raised. 



Genus EUPHAGUS. 



Medium-sized birds — wing about 4-5 to 5-0 — with short bills, and with 

 a distinctly down-curved culmen ; wing long and pointed, the ninth 

 primary always shorter than the seventh and eighth, visually between 

 the sixth and fifth ; tail long, about | the length of wing, rounded, 

 but not plicate ; tarsus stout and strong, distinctly longer than the 

 middle toe and claw. Plumage of the males glossy black, of the 

 females dusky brown. 



Only two species, ranging chiefly over the temperate regions of North 

 America, are recognised ; both occur in Colorado. 



Key of the Species. 



A. Bill slender, its depth at the nostril less than | the length of 



the mandible ; plumage faintly glossy. E. carolinus, p. 315. 



B. Bill stouter, its depth at the nostril about equal to k the 



length of the mandible ; plumage more strongly glossed. 



E. cyanocephalus, p. 316. 



Rusty Blackbird. Euphagus carolinus. 



A.O.U. Checklist no 509— Colorado Records— H. G. Smith 86, 

 p. 284 ; Thorne 88, p. 264 ; Morrison 89, p. 148 ; Osburn 93, p. 212 : 

 Cooke 97, p. 95 {Scolecophagus carolinus). 



