THE SWAMP BLACKBIRD. 341 
dashes and confluent blotches of brown, thickest at the 
greater end. 
By the last week in October, the young and old birds 
assemble in large flocks, and leave for the South. 
AGELAIUS, V1EILLor. 
Agelaius, VretLuor, “ Analyse, 1816.” (Type Oriolus Pheniceus, L.) 
First quill shorter than second; claws short; the outer lateral scarcely reaching 
the base of the middle; culmen depressed at base, parting the frontal feathers; 
length equal to that of the head, shorter than tarsus; both mandibles of equal thick- 
ness and acute at tip, the edges much curved, the culmen, gonys, and commissure 
nearly straight or slightly sinuated; the length of bill about twice its height; tail 
moderately rounded, or very slightly graduated; wings pointed, reaching to end of 
lower tail coverts; colors black, with red shoulders in North-American species. 
The nostrils are small, oblong, overhung by a membranous scale; the bill is 
higher than broad at the base; there is no division between the anterior tarsal 
scutelle and the single plate on the outside of the tarsus. 
AGELAIUS PHENICEUS, — Vieillot. 
The Swamp Blackbird; Red-wing Blackbird. 
Oriolus Pheniceus, Linnzeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 161. 
Agelaius Pheniceus, Vieillot. Anal. (1816). 
Icterus Pheniceus, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 348; V. (1839) 487. 
Icterus (Xanthornus Pheniceus), Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 52. Nutt. Man., I. 
(1832) 167. 
Sturnus predatorius, Wilson. Am. Orn., TV. (1811) 30. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Tail much rounded; the lateral feathers about half an inch shorter; fourth quill 
longest; first about as long as the fifth; bill large, stout; half as high, or more than 
half as high as long. 
Male. — General color uniform lustrous velvet-black, with a greenish reflection; 
shoulders and lesser wing coverts of a bright-crimson or vermilion-red; middle 
coverts brownish-yellow, and usually paler towards the tips. 
a 
1 By an amusing yet incomprehensible mistake of the printer, the subjoined 
description of eggs, &c., was annexed to this species, in an article published in the 
“Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1864,” p. 426. It belongs to 
the Chewink or Ground Robin, page 425 of that volume: “Their form varies from 
elongated oval to nearly spherical. The dimensions of a nest complement of four 
eggs, collected in Quincy, Mass., are 1 by .74 inch, .96 by .72 inch, .90 by .70 inch, 
90 by .68 inch: other specimens do not vary materially from these measurements. 
But one brood is usually reared in the season. This bird, although subsisting prin- 
cipally on various seeds and small fruits, destroys great numbers of insects, particu- 
larly in the breeding season: in fact, its young are fed entirely on insects and their 
larve, and the well-known wire-worms.” 
