168 



NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Sp. Char. First quill nearly as long as the second and third (longest), decidedly longer 

 than the fourth. Tail rounded, or slightly graduated. General color black, including the 

 inner surface of wings and axillaries, base of lower mandible all round, feathers adjacent 

 to nostrils, lores, upper eyelids, and remaining space around the eye. The head and neck 

 all round ; the forepart of the breast, extendmg some distance down on the median line, 

 and a somewhat hidden space round the anus, yellow. A conspicuous white patch at the 



base of the wing formed by the spurious 

 feathers, interrupted by the black alula. 



Female smaller, browner; the yellow con- 

 fined to the under parts and sides of the head, 

 and a superciliary line. A dusky maxillary 

 line. No white on the wing. Length of male, 

 10 inches; wing, 5.60; tail, 4.50. 



Hab. Western America from Texas, Illinois, 

 Wisconsin, and North Red River, to California, 

 south into Mexico; Greenland (Reinhardt); 

 Cuba (Cabanis, J. VII, 1859, 350); Massa- 

 chusetts (Maynard, D. C. Mass. 1870, 122); 

 Volusia, Florida (Mus. S. I.) ; Cape St. Lucas. 



Xanthocephalus icterocephcUus. 



The color of the yellow in this species 



varies considerably ; sometimes being 



almost of a lemon -yellow^ sometimes of 



a rich orange. There is an occasional trace of yellow around the base of the 



tarsus. Immature males show every gradation between the colors of the 



adult male and female. 



A very young bird (4,332, Dane Co., Wis.) is dusky above, with feathers 

 of the dorsal region broadly tipped with ochraceous, lesser and middle wing- 

 coverts white tinged with fulvous, dusky below the surface, greater coverts 

 very broadly tipped with fulvous- white ; primary coverts narrowly tipped 

 with the same. Whole lower parts unvariegated fulvous-white ; head all 

 round plain ochraceous, deepest above. 



Habits. The Yellow-headed Blackbird is essentially a prairie bird, and is 

 found in all favorable localities from Texas on the south to Illinois and 

 Wisconsin, and thence to the Pacific. A single specimen is recorded as hav- 

 ing been taken in Greenland. This was September 2, 1820, at Nenortalik. 

 Recently the Smithsonian Museum has received a specimen from New 

 Smyrna, in Florida. In October, 1869, a specimen of this bird was taken 

 in Watertown, Mass., and Mr. Cassin mentions the capture of several 

 near Philadelphia. These erratic appearances in places so remote from their 

 centres of reproduction, and from their route in emigration, sufficiently attest 

 the nomadic character of this species. 



They are found in abundance in all the grassy meadows or rushy marshes of 

 Illinois and Wisconsin, where they breed in large communities. In swamps 

 overgrown with tall rushes, and partially overflowed, they construct their 

 nests just above the water, and build them around the stems of these water- 

 plants, where they are thickest, in such a manner that it is difficult to 



