ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 165 



as pale greenish-white, with large curving streaks and spots of dark brown, 

 mostly at the large end. They are said to measure one inch by .75 of an inch. 

 Eggs of this variety in my cabinet, taken in California by Dr. Heermann, 

 are of a rounded-oval shape, nearly equally obtuse at either end, and vary- 

 ing in length from .90 of an inch to an inch, and in breadth from .70 to .80. 

 Their ground-color is a light blue, fading into a bluish-white, marked only 

 around the larger end with waving lines of dark brown, much lighter in 

 shade than the markings of the phmniceus usually are. 



Agelaius tricolor, Bonap. 



EED AND WHITE SHOULDERED BLACKBIRD. 



Icterus tricolor, "Nuttall," Aud. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, I, pi. ccclxxxviii. — Nuttall, 

 Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 186. Agelaius tricolor, Bon. List, 1838. — Aud. Syn. 1839, 

 141. — Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 27, pi. ccxiv. — Heerm. X, S, 53 (nest). — Baird, 

 Birds N. Am. 1858, 530. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 265. 



Sp. Char. Tail nearly even. Second and third quills longest; first a little shorter 

 than the fourth. Bill slender, not half as high as long. 



Male. General color uniform lustrous velvet-black, with a strong silky-bluish reflec- 

 tion. Shoulders and lesser wing-coverts brownish-red, of much the color of venous 

 blood ; the median coverts of a well-defined and nearly pure white, with sometimes a 

 brownish tinge. Wing, 4.90; tail, 3.70; culmen, .97; tarsus, 1.13. 



Female. General color dusky slaty-brown, faintly variegated on head also by lighter 

 streaks; middle wing-coverts broadly and sharply bordered with pure white. An 

 obsolete superciliary and maxillary stripe of grayish-white. Beneath grayish-white for 

 anterior half, with narrow streaks of dusky, this color gradually prevailing posteriorly, 

 the sides, flanks, and crissum being nearly uniform dusky. Wing, 4.25 ; tail, 3.20. 



Hab. Pacific Province of United States, fi-om Columbia River southward, not yet 

 found out of California and Oregon. 



Immature males sometimes have the white on the wing tinged with 

 brownish-yellow, as in A. phceniceus. The red, liowever, has the usual 

 brownish-orange shade so much darker and duller than the brilliantly scarlet 

 shoulders of the other species, and the black has that soft bluish lustre 

 peculiar to the 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. 



Two strong features of coloration distinguisli the female and immature 

 stages of this species from gubcmator and phmnicevs. They are, first, the soft 

 bluish gloss of the males, both adult and immature ; and secondly, the clear 

 white and broad, not brown and narrow, borders to the middle wing-coverts. 



Habits. The Eed and White shouldered Blackbird was seen by Mr. 

 Eidgway among the tuM in the neighborhood of Sacramento City, where it 

 was very abundant, associating with the A. phceniceus and giibernator, and 

 the Yellow-headed Blackbird. The conspicuous white stripe on the wings 



