BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 261 



c. Head and neck all around seal-brown .... 495. Cowbird 5 . 



d. Nape butty, rump whitish 494. Bobolink 3 . 



III. Under parts grayish, slate-color, chestnut, or buffy. 



A. Under parts grayish or slate-color. 



a. Under parts grayish ; bill finchlike ; wing under 4-00. 



495. Cowbird ? . 



b. Under parts and upper parts slate-color, the feathers sometimes 

 tipped with brownish 509. Kusty Blackbird ? . 



B. Under parts butt"y or chestnut. 



a. Under parts buff"y, generally with a few black streaks. 



494. Bobolink 9 . 



b. Under parts butt"y, without black streaks ; tail about 5-00. 



513. Boat-tailed Grackle 9 . 



c. Under parts chestnut; throat black. 



506. Orchard Oriole ( 3 ad.). 



IV. Under parts black and white, or black tipped or mar- 



gined ivith rusty. 



a. Under parts streaked black and white, or black tipped with white ; 



shoulder generally red or reddish. 



498. Eed-winged Blackbird ( 9 and im.). 

 4986. Florida Redwing ( 9 and im.). 



b. Upper parts and under parts tipped with rusty. 



509. KusTY Blackbird (im.). 



c. Nape butty, rump whitish 494. Bobolink $ . 



494. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Lmn.). Bobolink; Eeedbird ; 

 RicEBiRD. Ad. $ , breeding plumage. — Top and sides of the head and under 

 parts black, the feathers more or less tipped with a narrow whitish or cream- 

 buff fringe, which wears off' as the season advances ; back of the neck with a 

 large yellowish cream-butt' patch ; middle of back generally streaked with 

 cream-butt'; scapulars, lower back, and upper tail-coverts soiled grayish 

 white; wings and tail black; tail-feathers with, pointed tips ; bill blue-black. 

 Ad. 9 .—Upper parts olive-buff", streaked with black ; crown blackish, with a 

 central stripe of olive -buff'; nape finely spotted and back broadly streaked 

 with black ; wings and tail brownish fuscous; tail-feathers with pointed tips ; 

 under parts yellowish or bulfy white. Ad. in fall and /m.— Similar to 

 female, but huffier and more olivaceous throughout. L., 7-25; W., 3-76; T., 

 2-73 ; B., -55. 



Remarhs.—Th.Q young and adults in fall plumage are known as Reed- 

 birds. Adults acquire this plumage by a complete molt after the breeding 

 season. The breeding plumage is regained by a complete molt in the spring, 

 and not, as has been supposed, by a cliange in the color of the feathers with- 

 out molting. Freshly plumaged males have the black veiled by yellpw tips 

 to the feathers; these gradually wear off", and by June have almost entirely 

 disappeared (cf. Chapman, Auk, x, 1893, p. 309). 



^a«^e.— Breeds from southern New Jersey northward to Nqva Scotif^, 

 westward to Utah and northern Mqt^tar^a ; leaves |;l^e United States by way of 

 Florida, and winters in South America. 



