300 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



Dickcissel. The species is polygamous and usuall}' stays in small 

 flocks during the summer, frequenting pastures, feeding about 

 the feet of horses and cattle, and often alighting upon the ani- 

 mals' backs. 



Genus Xanthocephalus Swainson. 



214. (497)- Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonap.). Yellow- 



headed Blackbird. 



The Yellow-headed Blackbird occurs as a straggler in all .por- 

 tions of the state. It is only found as a common summer resi- 

 dent in the northern and western parts of the state, where in some 

 places it breeds in colonies of hundreds or thousands in large 

 prairie sloughs. The eggs are laid during the last week of May 

 and first of June, usually three or four in number, but I have 

 found two or three sets of five in .several hundred nests examined 

 in Winnebago and Hancock counties. The nests are rather bulky 

 structures, composed of blades of dead slough grass and lined 

 with thinner strips of grass-leaves, hung between last year's 

 standing stalks of cat-tails or the tall, slender miniature canes of 

 the common reed {Pht^agniites). In some localities — Big Lake, 

 Pottawattamie county, etc., (Trostler) — the species was reported 

 as building its nest in wild rice. 



While the Yellow-headed Blackbirds feed upon seeds to a great 

 extent, in the springtime large numbers of grubs are picked up 

 on the plowed fields. The species shows a great fondness for 

 certain localities, where the}- may abound, while other suitable 

 marshes in the near vicinity may not show a single bird. 



In some counties the species is very rare. C. C. Nutting 

 records one specimen taken in Johnson count}- in 1892 by J. T. 

 Paintin (Proc. Iowa Acad. Sci., 1892, p. 41); two specimens taken 

 near Burlington (Bartsch); seen twice in Mahaska (W. A. Bryan, 

 Iowa Orn., i, 2, 1895); a few seen in May, 1895, Winneshiek (Dr. 

 C.C.Smith); "rare in Linn county; none .seen in the last ten 

 years" (Keyes); "rare visitant at Keokuk; breeding in Clark 

 county, Mo." (Currier); "breeding commonly near Perry, Dal- 

 las county " (Law). 



Genus Agelaius Vieillot. 



215. (498). Agelaius phceniccus (Linn.). Red-winged Black- 



bird. 

 The Red-winged Blackbird is a common or abundant summer 



