202 S. CYANOCEPHALUS, BLUE-HEADED GRACKLE. 



procured, the birds grow fat, and furnisli very good eating. They are 

 tender, like nearly all small birds, and their flesh lacks the peculiar 

 taste and odor, not entirely agreeable, that that of the Redwing acquires 

 at the same season, when the bird feeds mostly on wild oats [Zizania). 

 At this season the lustre of the i)hunage is obscured, and its uniformity 

 interrupted by dull gray edging of the feathers. But even in autumn 

 some males are found nearly as richly clad as in the spring-time, and I 

 do not think that even the dullest colored females and young are ever 

 so decidedly rusty-brown as the Eastern Grackle. The sexes may be 

 known by their disparity in size, aside from the difference in plumage; 

 moreover, the eye of the male is clear lemon-yellow, that of the female 

 brown. The perfect male is lustrous greenish-black, changing abruptly 

 to purplish and violet on the head; length, 9^ to 10^; extent, IG or 17; 

 wing, about 5^; tail, 4i ; bill, 0.85; tarsus, about Ifj. The female only 

 averages 9 in length, with an extent of about 15, and other dimensions 

 are correspondingly smaller than those of the male. She is dull brown- 

 ish, blackening on the back, wings, and tail, where there is often a 

 greenish lustre, and with a plumbeous cast on the under parts; the 

 head, neck, and breast, ochrey-brown. The female and young are dis- 

 tinguished from those of 8. fernigineiis with some difficulty, but they 

 average larger, with the bill heavier at the base, and are probably never 

 so decidedly rusty-brown. 



Since the preceding was written, Mr. Allen has sent me an interesting 

 addendum: "Brewer's Blackbird is one of the most common repre- 

 sentatives of the Icteridw at the western edge of the plains, and 

 throughout the mountains of Colorado. I found it abundant both at 

 Denver and Cheyenne, and along all the wooded streams southward to 

 Colorado City. It was also numerous at all favorable localities along 

 the mountain streams ; it occurred in large flocks in South Park, and 

 was met with on the Snowy liange, even above timber-line. I met with 

 it also at various points in Southern Wyoming, west of Cheyenne, and 

 saw it in the Great Salt Lake Valley, in autumn, in flocks of several 

 hundred. It is at all times more or less gregarious, and from its size, 

 color, and habits, might readily be mistaken at a little distance for the 

 Purple Grackle of the East. The latter species, however, was not seeu 

 west of Middle Kansas." 



Mr. Trippe also furnishes his observations upon the species at Idaho 

 Springs, Colorado : "Abundant; migratory; breeds. The Blue-headed 

 Blackbird arrives in Bergen's Park early in spring, as soon as the 

 marshes and wet meadows begin to thaw. In this park, as well as in 

 all others that I have visited, it is very abundant, but only ventures 

 outside of these limits in straggling parties, foraging up and down the 

 valleys for food, especially early in the spring and late in the fall, when 

 the supply has become in^ecarious. In its habits and actions it shows 

 more resemblance to the Crow Blackbird than to the Rusty. It is very 

 social, and constantly in flocks, even in the breeding season associating 

 in small parties on its way to and from its ieeding grounds. It nests 

 in wet meadows and brushy swamps, whence it makes excursions to the 

 neighboring plowed fields and hills. The nest is built late in May, and 

 the female begins to set early in June. It Is placed on any dry spot in 

 the swamp, the centre of a clump of bushes being preferred, and is 

 always on the ground. It is large for the size of the bird, neatly con- 

 structed of weeds, grass, and bark, and smoothly lined with rootlets, 

 line bark, and hair. The eggs are five, of a pale bluish-green, very 

 thickly splashed and speckled with pale chocolate-brown. Late in fall 

 this bird leaves the mountains, and gathers in large flocks on the 

 plains." 



