260 NOETH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



yellowish ; beneath white, streaked with brown. Forepart of throat, superciliary, and 

 median stripe strongly tinged with brownish-yellow. Length of male, 9.50 ; wing, 5.00 ; 

 tail, 4.15. 



Hab. United States from Atlantic to Pacific ; north to Great Slave Lake, Fort Resolu- 

 tion, Fort Simpson, Fort Rae, etc. ; Guatemala (Sclater, Ibis I, 19 ; breeding) ; Costa Rica 

 (Lawrence, America, N. Y. Lye. IX, 104) ; Bahamas (Bryant, B. P. VII, 1859) ; 

 Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 66, 492) ; Arizona (Coues, P. A. N. S. 1866, 90; Fort Whipple) ; 

 Yucatan. 



There is some variation in the shade of red on the shoulders, which is 

 sometimes of the color of arterial blood or bright crimson. It never, how- 

 ever, has the hsematitic tint of the red in A. tricolor. The middle coverts 

 are usually uniform brownish-yellow to the very tips ; sometimes some of 

 these middle coverts are tipped at the end with black, but these black tips 

 are usually of slight extent, and indicate immaturity, or else a transition of 

 hybridism or race to A. gubernator. 



There is also some variation in the size and proportions of the bill. The 

 most striking is in a series of three from the Eed Eiver Settlement, decidedly 

 larger than more southern ones (wings, 5.15 ; tail, 4.40). The bill is about 

 as long as that of Pennsylvania specimens, but much stouter, the thickness 

 at the base being considerably more than half the length of the culmen. 

 One specimen from San Elizario, Texas, has the bill of much the same size 

 and proportions. 



The male of A. assimilis of Cuba cannot be distinguished from small- 

 sized males of phceniceus from the United States, the females, however, as in 

 nearly all West Indian Ideridm, are uniform though rather dull black. This 

 we consider as simply a local variation of melanism, not indicating a specific 

 difference. -A young male is similar, but with the lesser coverts red, tipped 

 with black. On the other extreme, streaked female and young birds from 

 Lower California, Arizona, and Western Mexico are much lighter than in 

 eastern birds, the chin, throat, jugulum, and superciliary stripe tinged with 

 a peculiar peach-blossom pink ; not buff, sometimes tinged with orange. 



Habits. The much abused and persecuted Eedwinged Blackbird is found 

 throughout North America as far nortli as the 57th parallel, from the Atlan- 

 tic to the Pacific ; and it breeds more or less abundantly wherever found, 

 from Florida and Texas to the plains of the Saskatchewan. According to 

 the observations of Mr. Salvin, it is resident all the year in Guatemala. It 

 breeds among the reeds at the lake of Duehas, deferring its incubation until 

 the month of June. The females congregate in large flocks near the lake, 

 feeding about the swampy grass on the edge of the water, the males keeping 

 separate. At Orizaba, Mexico, Sumichrast regarded this species as only a 

 bird of passage. 



On the Pacific coast, it is only found, in any numbers, in Washington 

 Territory and in Oregon, about cultivated tracts. Dr. Cooper thinks that 

 none inhabit the bare and mountainous prairie regions east of the Cascade 

 Mountains. Small flocks wintered at Vancouver about stables and hay- 



