274 STXGIXG BIPJ1S — OSCIXES. 



parts gciici-all y, sides of head and neck, ibrelicad, and line over the eye, rest of tail feath- 

 ers, rump, and upper tail coverts, yellow oranjie. A broad Ijand on the wings, in\-olving 

 the greater and middle coverts, and the outer edges of the qiulls, white. Young male with 



FeniaJe. 



the black replaced by greenish-yellow, that on the throat, jiersistent ; female without this. 

 Length, 7.75; extent, 12.50 ; wing, 4. 2.5. Iris brcjwn ; bill black, lead-blue below; feet 

 lead-color. 



Hah. High central plains to the Pacific, south into iMexico. 



This beautiful aud musietil l)ird arrives in California from tlte South 

 about ]\Iarch 1st near 8an Diego ; wliile at Fort ^Ioja\'e, only one hunilred 

 and sixty mile.s farther north, I saw none the jn-evious year until Ajiril 1st. 

 They migrate north of lat. 49°, whieli they do not reach before tlie first of 

 June, and, remaining there about tliree months, again retire south of the 

 State in early autumn. They resort to the open roads, gardens, and or- 

 chards, claiming the protection of man alxiut tlie towns, and repaying him for 

 it by their sweet melody and usefulness in destroying insects. Their home 

 is in the trees, and they rarely descend to the ground, except to pick up 

 some bit of twine or other material for their nest. This is built near tlie 

 end of a Ijrancli, often o\'erhanging the road or house, and constructed of 

 fibrous grasses, horse-hairs, strings, rags, down of p>lants, wool, and fine bark. 

 Sometimes one or two materials alone are used, such as wliite Iiorse-liair 

 and cotton twine, wliich I have found in one instance. These are neatly 

 and closely interwoven in the form of a deep bag, suspended by tlie edges 

 from the forks of a liranch, near its end. 



The eggs, from four to six, are bluish-wliite, witli scattered winding 

 streaks and liair lines of black and reddish-lirown near the large end, 

 measuring 0.98 X 0.60 inch. They lay on the first or second week of May, 

 in the southern half of California. 



At Santa Cruz, irt 1866, I did not observe any of this species until 

 A]iril 3d, which, however, was as early as they arrived at Fort Mojave in 

 ISGl. 



