170 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS CALIFORNICUS Nelson 



Bicolored Redwing 

 HABITS 



The history of the above name is interesting. We older naturalists 

 can remember when there were only three kinds of red-winged black- 

 birds, all full species, recognized in North America. These were the 

 red-and-buff-shouldered blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) in the east, 

 the red-and-white-shouldered blackbird (Agelaius tricolor) in Cali- 

 fornia, and the red-and-black-shouldered blackbird (Agelaius guber- 

 nator) in California and Mexico. Audubon (1842) figured these three 

 species and used the above three names, which survived for half a 

 century, in the 1886 and 1895 A.O.U. Check-Lists. 



Agelaius gubernator is a Mexican species, and it was not long after 

 the publication of the 1895 Check-List that E. W. Nelson (1897) dis- 

 covered, in comparing specimens of this species from the tablelands of 

 Mexico with those from California, that "certain differences are found 

 which warrant the naming of a geographical race. As A. gubernator 

 was described from the tablelands of Mexico it follows that the 

 California bird is the new one. 



"The breeding females of typical gubernator from the plains of 

 Puebla lack nearly all of the light streaking on the entire upper surface, 

 including the wings, and the light streaks are less marked on the lower 

 surface. 



"Among other differences from true gubernator are the notably 

 smaller size and slenderer bills of the northern birds." 



He proposed calling the California bird Agelaius gubernator californ- 

 icus, and this name was adopted in the 1910 Check-List. 



The discussion that followed, as to whether gubernator was specifi- 

 cally distinct from phoeniceus, at least as shown in the California 

 races, finally led to another change in the name, for which Joseph 

 Mailliard (1910) was mainly responsible. In his long and exhaustive 

 study of large series of specimens of the California races, he seems to 

 have demonstrated satisfactorily that the gubernator and phoeniceus 

 types are connected by every degree of intergradation, and are there- 

 fore not specifically distinct; he proposed to call the California bird 

 the bicolored redwing, and this name was officially adopted in the 

 1931 Check-List, making the bicolored redwing a subspecies of Agelaius 

 phoeniceus. For the steps which led to this conclusion, the reader is 

 referred to Mr. Mailliard's illustrated paper. 



For comparison with other California races, A. J. van Rossem (1926) 

 gives the following diagnosis for A. p. calif ornicus: 



