64 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



260. Yellow-headed Blackbird — xanthocephalus icterocephalus- 

 Pale greenish-white, profusely covered with blotches and small dottings of 

 drab, purplish-brown and unnber, oblong-oval; three to six in number; 

 size 1. 12 by. 75. The Yellow-headed Blackbird is found generally dis- 

 tributed on the prairies in all favorable localities from Texas on the south 

 to Illinois and Wisconsin, thence to the Pacific. It collects in colonies to 

 breed in marshy places anywhere in its general range. The nests are usu- 

 ally placed in the midst of large marshes, attached to tall flags and grassess 

 They are generally light, but thick-brimmed, made of interwoven grasse. 

 and sedges impacted together. 



Hab. Western America from Texas, Illinois, Wisconsin and North Red River to California; casually to 

 Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Greenland. 



261. Red-and-buff-shouldered Blackbird — agel.eus phceniceus. Light 

 blue, marbled, lined, blotched and clouded with markings of light and 

 dark purple and black, almost entirely about the larger end, but vary con- 

 siderably; they are four or five in number and average i. by .75. The 

 Red-winged Blackbird, as it is commonly called, is found from the At- 

 lantic to the Pacific, and as far north as the 57th parallel, and breeds more 

 or less abundantly wherever found from Florida and Texas to the Sas- 

 katchewan country. The nest is usually built in reeds or bushes near the 

 ground; often in a tussock of grass; sometimes on the ground; and once 

 in a while at a considerable elevation in a tree. The materials are usually 

 strips of rushes or sedges, lined with finer grasses and sometimes with a 

 few horse hairs. It is rather bulky and not at all artistic. This bird nests 

 in communities, and one is quite as likely to find several nests near each 

 other as a single one in a piece of swamp. This bird is also known as 

 Swamp Blackbird. Nests and eggs found in Texas are smaller than the 

 average of those found in the more Northern States. 



261«. Red-and-black-shouldered Blackbird — agel^us phqeniceus 

 gubernator. Light blue or bluish-white, marked around the larger end 

 with waving lines of dark brown, lighter in shade than the markings on 

 the eggs of the common Red-wing; four or five in number; size from .90 

 to I. in length by .70 to .80 in breadth. This bird occurs along the Pacific 

 Coast from British Columbia south throughout California. The female is 

 not distinguishable from the female of the Red-wing and the nesting habits 

 are exactly the same, placing the nests in water cress, or rushes, along 

 running streams, ditches and swamps. 



Hab. Pacific Province of United States, from British Columbia southward. 



262. Red-and-white-shouldered Blackbird — agel^us tricolor. Light 

 blue, slightly deeper than the ground-color of the Red-wing's eggs, marked 



