ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. ■ 207 



head and neck, which are glossed with purphsh-violet. Female much duller, of a light 

 brownish anteriorly; a very faint superciliary stripe. Length about 10 inches; wing, 

 5.30 ; tail, 4.40. 



Hab. High Central Plains to the Pacific; south to Mexico. Pembina, Minn.; S. 

 Illinois (Wabash Co. ; R. Ridgway) ; Matamoras and San Antonio, Texas (breeds ; 

 Dresser, Ibis, 1869, 493); Plateau of Mexico (very abundant, and resident; Sumi- 

 CHRAST, M. B. S. I, 553). 



Autumnal specimens do not exhibit the broad rusty edges of feathers seen 

 in >S^. fcrrugincus. 



The females and immature males differ from the adult males in much the 

 same points as S.ferrugineus, exce])t that the " rusty " markings are less 

 prominent and more grayish. The differences generally between the two 

 species are very appreciable. Thus, in S. cyanocephalus, the bill, though of 

 the same length, is much higher and broader at the base, as well as much 

 less linear in its upper outline ; the point, too, is less decurved. The size is 

 every way larger. The purplish gloss, which in ferruginous is found on most 

 of the body except the wings and tail, is here confined to the head and 

 neck, the rest of the body being of a richly lustrous and strongly marked 

 green, more distinct than that on the wings and tail of ferrugineus. In one 

 specimen only, from Santa Rosalia, Mexico, is there a trace of purple on 

 some of the wing and tail feathers. 



Habits. This species was first given as a bird of our fauna by Mr. Au- 

 dubon, in the supplementary pages of the seventh volume of his Birds of 

 America. He met with it on the prairies around Fort Union, at the junc- 

 tion of the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers, and in the extensive ravines 

 in that neighborhood, in which were found a few dwarfish trees and tall 

 rough weeds or grasses, along the margin of scanty rivulets. In these locali- 

 ties he met with small groups of seven or eight of these birds. They were 

 in loose flocks, and moved in a silent manner, permitting an approach to 

 within some fifteen or twenty paces, and uttering a call-note as liis party stood 

 watching their movements. Perceiving it to be a species new to him, he 

 procured several specimens. He states that they did not evince the pertness 

 so usual to Ijirds of this family, but seemed rather as if dissatisfied with their 

 abode. On the ground their gait was easy and brisk. He heard nothing 

 from them of the nature of a song, only a single duck, not unlike that of tho 

 Redwing, between which birds and the C. ferrugineus he was disposed to 

 place this species. 



Dr. Newberry found this Blackbird common both in California and in 

 Oregon. He saw large flocks of them at Fort Vancouver, in the last of Oc- 

 tober. They were flying from field to field, and gathered into the large 

 spruces about the fort, in the manner of other Blackbirds when on the point 

 of migrating. 



Mr. Allen found this Blackbird, though less an inhabitant of the marshes 

 than the Yellow-headed, associating with them in destroying the farmers' 



