PASSERES — OSCINES — ICTERIU^. 71 



108. (141.) Molothrus ater (Bodd.) Gray. (M. pccoris of the original edition.) 

 Cow-bird. 



A summer resident ; not very common. Arrives the second week in 

 March ; remains until October. It is probably less numerous, if not less 

 generally distributed now than formerly, there being fewer cattle at 





P^*3** 



Fig. 49.— Cow-bird. 



large in the immediate vicinity of the city than there used to be 

 twenty -five years ago in the streets and open lots — when Franklin 

 Square, for instance, now an elegant little park, was a good cattle past- 

 ure, before it was turned into a military camp. [313] 



109. (142.) Agelaeus phceniceus (Linn.) Vieill. Red-winged Blackbird. 



Resident nearly all the year, but more abundant during the migrations 

 than at other seasons, and especially in the fall. Numbers breed in the 

 marshes adjoining the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. The Blackbirds 



Fig. 50. — Red-winged Blackbird. 



begin to flock over the tracts of Zizania aquatica and the neighboring 

 cornfields the first week in August, and by the latter part of that month 

 they become a dusky host. Probably few, if any, pass the whole winter 

 here. Their arrival from the South in small flocks may be noted early 



