ICTKIUD^J — AGEL^IKJE : MARSH BLACKBIRDS. 



401 



edged with yi'Howish ; bill blackish-horn ; feet brown. The tkultless full dress of black, white, 

 and liutl' is worn only for a brief period ; and even iu spring and summer, most males are found 

 to liave yellowish touches in the black, especially of the under parts. The "delirious song" 

 is only heard while the males are trooping their way to their breeding-grounds, and before the 

 midsummer change of feather. $ iu fall, 9 > ^iid yt>ung, entirely different in color : Yellowish- 

 brown above, brownish-yellow below ; crown and back conspicuously, nape, ruu:ip, and sides 

 less broadly, streaked with black ; crown with a median and lateral light stripe ; wings and 

 tail blackish, pale-edged ; bill brown, paler below. In this, the ordinary condition, the $ is 

 oidy known by superior size. Fall birds are more buffy than the spring 9 • The $ changing 

 ijhows confused characters of both sexes (see p. 89) ; but iu any plumage the species may be 

 recognized by tlie stiffish, extremely acute tail-feathers, in connection with its special dimensions. 

 $ : Length 7.00-7.50; extent 11.50-12.25; wing 3.50-3.80; tail 2.73-3.00; tarsus 1.00; 

 middle toe and claw 1.25. 9 : Length G.50-7.00 ; extent 10.50-11.25 ; wiug 3.25-3.50, etc., 

 ivveraging i an inch less in length and an inch iu extent. Chiefly Eastern U. S. and Canada ; 

 N. to 54° in the region of the Saskatcliewan, W. not ordinarily beyond the central plains, but 

 occurs in Montana, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Winters wholly extralimital. In May, the 

 vivacious, voluble, and eccentric " Bobo- 

 links " pass North, spreading over the 

 meadows of the Middle and Northern 

 States from the Atlantic to Kansas and 

 Dakota, perfecting its black dress, and 

 breeding in June and July. After th(> 

 midsummer change the "Reed-bird" or 

 ^'Rice-bird" comes back, thronging the 

 marshes in immense flocks with the Black- 

 birds ; has simply a chirping note, feeds on 

 the wild oats and wild rice, and becomes 

 extremely fat and is accounted a great 

 delicacy. The name "ortolan," applied 



by some gunners and restaurateurs to this '^^'- \A:,\l Jd- 



bird, as well as to the Carolina RaU [For- fio. 257. - Bobolink, s, reduced. (Sheppard del. 



zana Carolina) is in either case a strange Nichols sc.) 



misnomer, the Ortolan being a fringiUine bird of Europe, Emberiza Jiortulana L. (Lat. hortii- 

 lanus, relating to a garden.) In the West Indies, whore 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 

 color 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 passen- 

 gers. Nest on the ground, artfully concealed iu the grass; eggs 4-0,0.90x0.65, stone-gray, 

 dotted, mottled, and clouded with dark browns. 



MOLO'THRUS. (Gr. /ioXo^po?, or /xoXoiSpos, vagabond, tramp, parasite.) Cowbirds. Bill 

 sliort, stout, conic and fringilline, about •§■ as long as head ; but entirely unnotched and 

 unbristled, with little bent of comtnissure, the broad culmen running well up on the forehead, 

 the nostrils well in advance of the feathers. Wings long and pointed, the first 3 primaries 

 entering into the tip, rest rapidly graduated. Tail shorter than wings, nearly 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, without red or yellow ; 

 9 plain black or brovra. Terrestrial, but not specially palustrine ; eminently gregjirious and 

 polygamous, or rather communistic, never mating or building nests ; thus parasitic, like the Old 

 Worhl cuckoos; no musical ability. To the single species long notorious in the U. S., a second 



2G 



