IC TERILLE — A GEL.EIX.E : MA RSH BLA CKBIRDS. 



469 



sometimes the greater row, likewise, are mostly similar, producing a patch on the winj; nearly 

 as large as the red one ; occasionally, there are traces of red on the edge of the wing and below ; 

 in some specimens the bordering is almost pure white, instead of buff. Extremes : $, length 

 8.25-9.85; extent 13.60-15.;30; wing 4.35-5.00; tail 3.12-3.90; bill 075-1.00; average: 

 Length 9.00; extent 14.50; wing 4.()5; tail 3.60. 9, length 7.35-8.55; extent 11.85-13.55; 

 wing 3.65-4.25; tail 2.65-3.20; bill 0.70-0.80; average: Length 7.65; extent 12.35; wing 

 3.85; tail 3.00; bill 0.75. The extremes here given not often seen. Southern-bred birds are 

 much smaller as well as glossier (see varieties given below). Temperate X. Am., N. to lat. 

 62°, but chiefly E. of the Eocky Mts. ; breeding anywhere in its range, wintering from about 

 lat. 35° S. to Central America ; accidental 

 iu Europe. From its general dispersion 

 in low or wet thickets or fields, swamps, 

 and marshes, the Blackbird collects in 

 August and September in immense flocks, 

 thronging extensive tracts of wild oats and 

 other aquatic plants in marshes and along 

 water courses, also visiting and doing much 

 damage to grain-fields. Thousands are 

 destroyed by boys and pot-hunters, but 

 the hosts scarcely diminish, and every 

 known artifice fails to protect the crops 

 from the invasion of the dusky hordes. At 

 other seasons the " maize-thief" is innocu- 

 ous, if not positively beneficial, as it de- 

 stroys its share of injurious insects and 

 seeds of troublesome weeds. Nest usually 

 in reeds or bushes near the ground, or in a 

 tussock of grass, or on the ground ; occa- 

 sionally in small trees, vines, and shrubbery; a bulky structure of coarse fil)rous materials, 

 usually strips of bark, rushes, sedges, or marsh grass, lined with finer grasses, sometimes hair, 

 occasionally snake skins ; size 4 or 5 inches broad outside, 4 to 6 deep outside ; cavity about 

 3 either way. The breeding season in northerly parts of the U. S. and Brit. Am. is mostly 

 from the middle of May to that of June, and often again iu July ; in the south it begins a 

 month earlier ; incubation about 14 days. Eggs 2-6, usually 3 or 4, ranging from the rare 

 extremes of 0.80 to 1.10 X 0.62 to 0.75, averaging scant 1.00 X 0.70; color pale bluisli, 

 bluish-green, or smoky-gray, fantastically dotted, blotched, clouded, and scrawled over with 

 dark or even blackish-brown, and paler or purplish shell-marks; in very rare instances an un- 

 marked egg is laid. The usual note is a guttural chuclc; in the breeding season the *' creak- 

 ing chorus" makes an indescribable medley. 



A. p. sonorien'sis. (Lat. of Sonora.) SoNORAN Red-wing. Like the typical form, but 

 averaging rather smaller in each sex than northern-bred birds. J indistinguishable in plu- 

 mage from phoiniceus proper; 9 lighter colored, with more conspicuous light markings of tlie 

 upper parts, and white in excess of dusky in the streaking of the under parts; tinge i>f throat 

 rather pinkish than creamy or buff. Southwestern U. S., from tiie valley of the Lower liio 

 Grande to that of the Lower Colorado in southern California; south into Mexico. A. p. sono- 

 riensis Ridgw. Man. 1887, p. 370; Coues, Key, 4th ed. 1890, p. 901 ; A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 

 1895, No. 498 a. 



A. p. bryant'i. (To II. Bryant.) Baham.\n Rkd-wing. .'somewhat smaller than A. p. 

 sonoriensis, with relatively larger bill; coloration of 9 darker, and tlierefgre about as in 9 "f 

 phceniceus proper. Length of <J 8.00-8.50; wing 4.50; tail 3.50; culmen 1.00-1.05; depth of 



Fig. 316 

 Nichols sc.) 



■Marsh Blackbird, ^f, reduced (Sheppard del. 



