158 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



to 10 feet above the ground in some slender willows growing along the 

 edge of a pond. 



Referring to the same general locality, Herbert Friedmann (1925) 

 says: "Some 15 nests were examined and all were in bushes or trees in 

 dry locations and varied from within five feet of the ground to over 

 20 feet above it. In all his years of field work in this region Camp has 

 never found a Red-wing's nest built over the water." 



George Finlay Simmons (1925), referring to the Austin region, which 

 is probably near the northern limit of the breeding range of this race, 

 says that the nests are placed "1 to 20, usually 6, feet up, firmly woven 

 to limbs and twigs of willow or ligustrum trees or bushes, to cattails, 

 blood-weeds, reeds, rushes, tules, cane or saw-grass; along creeks, 

 sloughs, river margins, draws, edges of pasture ponds, and about 

 artificial lakes." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The Rio Grande redwing is resident from central Texas 

 (Del Rio, Kerrville, Giddings) south to southeastern Coahuila, 

 Mexico, and northern Vera Cruz. 



AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS ARCTOLEGUS Oberholser 



Giant Redwing 

 HABITS 



Oberholser (1907) characterized this large northern form as "similar 

 to Agelaius phoniceus fortis, but female decidedly darker below, the 

 streaks more blackish and more extensive, about as broad as the white 

 interspaces; above more blackish. Male with wing and tail averaging 

 shorter; bill larger; and buff of wing-coverts somewhat paler. He 

 reported its geographical distribution as "Montana, North Dakota, 

 Minnesota, and northern Michigan, north to Keewatin, Athabaska, 

 and Mackenzie; in migration south to Colorado, Texas, Illinois, and 

 probably Ohio," and says further: "This new form is much like 

 Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus in color, the male in this respect being 

 practically indistinguishable, and the female barely less blackish above 

 and below; but in size A. p. arctolegus is much greater, as the sub- 

 joined measurements will show. It differs from Agelaius phoeniceus 

 neutralis in larger size; in more blackish upper parts, broader and 

 darker streaks on the lower surface of the female; and paler buff on 

 the shoulder of the male." 



He did not give it the common name "giant," which does not seem to 

 be warranted, inasmuch as his tables of measurements show that the 

 average measurements of the thick-billed redwing are somewhat 



