530 



U. S. p. B. K. EXP. AND SUEVEYS — ZOOLOGY — GENERAL REPORT. 



List of specimens. 



AGELAIUS TRICOLOR, Bon. 



Red and white>shouldered Blackbird. 



Icterus tricolor, " Nhttall," Aud. Orn. Bio?. V, 1839, 1 ; pi. 388.— Ndttall, Man. I, 2d ed, 1840, 186. 

 Jigelaixis tricolor, BoN. List, 1838.— Acd. Syn. 1839, 141.— Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 27 ; pi. 214. 



Sp. Ch. — Tail nearly even. Second and third quills longest ; first a little shorter than the fourth. Bdl slender, not half as 

 high as long. 



Jl/oic — General color uniform lustrous velvet black, with a decided greenish reflection. Shoulders and lesser wing coverts 

 brownish red, of much the color of venous blood; tlie median coverts of a well-defined and nearly pure white, with sometimes 

 a brownish tinge. 



Female. — Dark brown, variegated with dark grayish ash. No median stripe on the crown, nor any maxillary one, and scarcely 

 a superciliary. 



Length, 9.20 ; wing, 4.85 ; tail, 3.90. 



Hab. — Coast of California. Colorado river .' 



The bill of this species is about the length of that of A. phoeniceus, it is, however, lower ; the 

 greatest height perpendicular to the base of the gonys being considerably less than half the 

 culmen. There are distinct wrinkles or striae extending from the nostrils parallel with the 

 culmen, and sometimes on the lower jaw nearly parallel with the gonys. Tail very nearly even, 

 or slightly rounded. Tarsus about equal to the middle toe. The second and third quills are 

 longest ; the first much longer than the fifth. 



The female of this species is dark brown above, the feathers margined with brownish gray ; 

 the under parts dark gray, the feathers broadly streaked with dark brown. The throat is con- 

 spicuously streaked, its ground color lighter than on the belly. There is a faiut indication of a 

 paler superciliary stripe, most distinct behind the eye. In one specimen there is no red on the 

 wing ; in another it is quite distinct. The under surface of the wing and the axillaries are 

 sooty plumbeous brown. 



Immature males sometimes have the white on the wing tinged with brownish yellow, as in 

 A. phoeniceus. The red, however, has the usual brownish orange shade so much darker and 

 duller thau the brilliantly scarlet shoulders of the other species. The relationships generally 

 between the two species are very close, but the bill, as stated, is slenderer and more sulcate 

 in tricolor, the tail much more nearly even ; the first primary longer, usually nearly equal to or 

 longer than the fourth instead of the fifth. 



