438 MICHK;AN ]iIRD LIFE. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult male: Entire head and neck uniform glossy dark brown; rest of plumage glossy 

 greenish black, usually with a purplish tinge where the brown and black areas merge; bill 

 and feet black; iris dark brown. 



Adult female: Dull brownish gray to plain dark gray, somewhat darker above than 

 below; throat much lighter, sometimes soiled white; breast and belly often obscurely 

 streaked with dusky; bill and iris brown. 



Young: At first quite similar to the adult female, but more distinctly streaked below; 

 young males, however, begin to assume the adult plumage in early autumn, and are often 

 seen patched in various degrees with gray and deep black. 



Male: Length 7.75 to 8.25 inches; wing 4 to 4.60; tail 2.90 to 3.35; culmen .61 to .72. 



Female: Averages about one inch shorter, the wing about 3.75. 



197. Yellow-headed Blackbird. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus {Bona/p.). 



(497) 



Synonyms: Copperhead. — Icterus xanthocephalus, Hona|)arte, 1826. — Agelaius 

 xanthocephalus, Sw. & Rich., Aud., Baird. — Xanthocephalus icterocephalus, Coues, B. 

 B. & R., Lawr., Ridgw. and many others. 



Male glossy black with bright yellow head and neck in sharp contrast, 

 and a pure white patch in the wing which is conspicuous in flight. Female 

 similar, but smaller, browner, the yellow duller and no white in the wing. 



Distribution. — Western North America, from Wisconsin, Illinois and 

 Texas to the Pacific Coast, and from British Columbia and the Saskatchewan 

 River southward to the valley of Mexico. Accidental in Ontario and the 

 Atlantic states. 



The Yellow-headed Blackbird must be considered a straggler in Michigan 

 and a very rare one at that. A single specimen, an adult male, was taken 

 May 17, 1890, near Iron Mountain, Dickinson County, Mich., by Mr. E. E. 

 Brewster. Mr. Brewster has kindly donated this specimen to the College 

 and it is now in our collection, numbered 8044. This, so far as we can learn, 

 is the only unquestionable Michigan specimen in existence. There is a 

 specimen in the Barron collection at Niles, Mich., which may have been 

 taken in that vicinity, but it is without any label and its origin is entirely 

 unknown. Mr. John Hazelwood of Port Huron states that a single specimen 

 of this species was brought to him for identification by a boy who had 

 shot it, but the specimen was not preserved and the date of capture is not 

 known. A. B. Covert of Ann Arbor states that specimens have been 

 secured on the Monroe marshes in Monroe county, and he has a note to that 

 effect on the margin of his copy of Coues Key, but no definite data as to 

 these specimens have been found. There is in the Universit}^ of Michigan 

 collection a specimen of the Yellow-headed Blackbird labeled "Scole- 

 cophagus carolinus, Mich., J. Hobson & Son." It is a young bird, but 

 evidently was well able to fly. N. A. Wood informs us that Hobson was 

 once curator of the University Museum, and he feels sure that this spec- 

 imen must have been taken in the immediate vicinity of Ann Arbor. 



The bird is known to nest abundantly in certain parts of Wisconsin, 

 and it formerly nested in numbers in Lake county, Indiana, within a 

 very few miles of the Michigan border. The Gibbs collection contains a 

 set of four eggs taken at Sheffield, Lake county, Ind., June 16, 1878, by 

 Geo. F. Clingman, nest in wild rice two feet above the mud. It also breeds 

 in northeastern Illinois and it is not impossible that small colonies may 

 occasionally nest in IMichigan territory in the southern tier of counties. 

 It is a i)rairie bird, nesting in the marshes and sloughs after the manner 



