174 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



Harold C. Bryant (1912) made a thorough study of the relation of 

 birds to a grasshopper outbreak that occurred in the San Joaquin 

 Valley in 1912. Although the number of grasshoopers taken per day 

 by each individual bicolored redwing was exceeded by the daily 

 numbers taken by several other species (this bud ranking sixth in 

 this respect), by reason of its much greater abundance the total 

 number of grasshoppers destroyed by the species as a whole far ex- 

 ceeded that for any other species. He figured that the total population 

 of bicolored redwings consumed 78,590 grasshoppers per day; western 

 meadowlarks came next with a daily score of 24,720 for the total 

 population. "The bicolored redwing was the bird most abundant. 

 Large flocks of from one to four hundred individuals were often seen 

 busily engaged in catching grasshoppers. At times these flocks were 

 seen at a considerable distance from their usual habitat. They ap- 

 peared to feed almost wholly in the infested districts, and more often 

 in alfalfa fields than in pasture land." 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The bicolored redwing is resident in the Great Valley of 

 California from Fouts Springs, Red Bluff and Columbia Hill south to 

 Los Banos, Cuddy Valley, and Visalia. 



Casual record.— Casual in southeastern California (Calipatria) . 



AGELAIUS PHOENICEUS ACICULATUS Mailliard 



Kern Redwing 

 HABITS 



Joseph Mailliard (1915a) described this scarce and extremely local 

 subspecies as "similar to Agelaius phoeniceus neutralis, but of larger 

 size, feet averaging somewhat larger; but chiefly characterized by a 

 longer, and comparatively more slender bill than any other form of 

 this genus in the United States." 



Of its range, he said: "So far this form has only been found in east- 

 central Kern County, Calif., in the Walker Basin, just north of the 

 town of Caliente, and on the South Fork of Kern River, between 

 Isabella and Onj^x, thus probably being restricted to a very small 

 range." And speaking of its coloration and markings, he said that 

 this form "seems to be between neutralis and nevadensis, both racially 

 and geographically, and appears to have been developed by some 

 unknown factor in the small area it must occupy among the foothills 

 of the southern Sierra. Specimens of Agelaius taken at Buena Vista 

 Lake, thirty or forty miles west of this area, and across the plains, are 



