BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 261 



c. Head uud neck all around seal-brown .... 495. Cowbird $, . 



d. Nape butfy, rump wliitish 494. Bobolink 3 . 



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



A. Under parts grayish or slate-color. 



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



495. Cowbird 9 . 



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

 tipped with brownish 509. Kusty Blackbird 9 . 



B. Under parts buflfy or chestnut. 



a. Under parts buffy, generally with a few black streaks. 



494. Bobolink 9 . 



b. Under parts buffy, without black streaks ; tail about 5-00. 



513. Boat-tailed Grackle 9 . 



c. Under parts chestnut; throat black. 



506. Orchard Oriole ( $ ad.). 



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



gined with 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 Eedwing ( 9 and im.). 



b. Upper parts and under parts tipped with rusty. 



509. KusTY Blackbird (im.). 

 c! Nape buffy, rump whitish 494. Bobolink $ . 



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

 Eicebird. Ad. 6 , bveedliuj 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-buff' patch ; middle of back generally streaked with 

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

 white; wings and tail black; tail-feathers vf\\h 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 buffy 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. 



Bemarks.— The young and adults in fall plumage are known as Eeed- 

 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 change in the color of the feathers with- 

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

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

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



Range. — Breeds from southern New Jersey northward to Nova Scotia, 

 westward to Utah and northern Montana; leaves the United States by way of 

 Florida, and winters in South .\merica. 



