466 S YS TEMA TIC S YXOPSIS. — PA SSERES — OSCINES. 



ada; X. to 54° in the region of the Saskatchewan, W. not ordinarily beyond the central plains, 

 but occurs in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Utah, Nevada, etc. Winters wholly extralimital ; 

 breeds mainly in about the northern half of its N. Am. range, but sometimes S. to the Gulf 

 States. In May, the vivacious, voluble, and eccentric "Bobolinks" pass North, spreading 

 over meadows of the Middle and Northern States from the Atlantic to Kansas and Dakota, 

 perfecting their black dress, and breeding in June and July. After the midsummer change the 

 "Eeed-bird" or " llice-bird " comes back, thronging the marshes in immense flocks with 

 Blackbirds, has simply a clinking Bote, feeds on wild oats and rice, to which it is highly de- 

 structive while the grain is in the milk, becomes extremely fat, and is accounted a great deli- 

 cacy for the table, as well as a pest in the field. The name "Ortolan," applied by some 

 gunners and restaurateurs to this bird, as well as to the Carolina Rail {Porzana Carolina), is 

 in either case a strange misnomer, the Ortolan being a fringilline bird of Europe, Emheriza 

 hortulana L. (Lat. hortulanus, relating to a garden). In the West Indies, where this bird 

 retires in winter, as it does also to Central and South America, it is called " Butter-bird." The 

 names " Bobolink " and " Meadow- wink " are in imitation of its cry; " Skunk Blackbird " notes 

 the resemblance in ccdor to the obnoxious quadruped. The migrations are performed mostly 

 at night, when in May and early September one may hear the mellow metallic "chink" of the 

 invisible passengers. Nest on the ground or close to it, artfully concealed in the grass, com- 

 posed of weed stems, grasses, and finer materials, 4.00 X 2..50 outside, cupped 2.50 X 1.50 

 inside ; eggs 4-7, usually 5 or 6, from 0.90 X 0.65 to 0.70 X 0.60, averaging 0.82 X 0.63, 

 stone-gray, dotted, mottled, and clouded with dark browns, and lighter neutral tints, usually 

 also marked with some tine blackish scrawls, the whole pattern intricate and very variable. 

 MOL'OTHRUS. (Gr. fjLoXodpos, or jjioXo^pos, vagabond, tramp, parasite.) COWBIRDS. 

 Bill short, stout, conic, and fringilline, about f as long as head ; entirely unnotched and un- 

 bristled, with little bend of commissure, the broad culmen running well up on forehead, nostrils 

 well in advance of the feathers. Wings long and pointed; first 3 primaries entering into tip; 

 rest rapidly graduated. Tail shorter than wings, neai"ly even or a little rounded, tending to 

 divaricate in the middle, the feathers broad and plane to their rounded ends. Feet strong; 

 tarsus not shorter than middle toe. ^ black and lustrous on the body, brown on the head, 

 without red or yellow ; 9 plain brown. Terrestrial, but not specially palustrine ; eminently 

 gregarious and polygamous, or rather communistic, never mating or building nests; thus 

 parasitic, like Old World Cuckoos ; no musical ability. There is a single notorious species 

 in the I:. S., and another subspecies. Several other species in the warmer parts of Amer- 

 ica, all of the same irregular and objec- 

 tionable tendencies, are usually brought 

 under Molothrus, but sometimes dissociated 

 in other genera. 



M. a'ter. (Lat ater, black. Fig. 315.) 

 Brown - headed Blackbird. Cow 

 Blackbird. Common Cowbird. Cow- 

 bunting. COW-TROOPIAL. COWPEN- 



^. BIRD. Buffalo - BIRD. Lazy -bird. 



^ Clodhopper. Cuckold. Shiny-eye. 



^ Adult (J: Lustrous green-black, with steel- 



"" -^ -«s -r;jr »^ — =^ blue, purple, and violet iridescence. Head 



'"'' - "^-^ and neck deep wood-brown, with some pur- 



Fig. 315. - Cowl,.,, , i M.-ppard del. Nich- pUshlustre. Bill and feet black. Length 



ols sc.) ' '^ 



7..50-8.00; extent 13.50; wing about 4.50, 

 at least over 4.00; tail about 3.25; bill 0.70 ; tarsus 1.00-1.10. Adult ? : An obscure-looking 

 bird, dusky grayish -brown, nearly uniform, but paler below than above, where most of the 



