BIRDS OF THE CAMBRIDGE REGION. 



241 



ping Sparrows, in which to lay its eggs, but to this and other densely populated 

 parts of Cambridge, as well as to most of the country lying immediately to the 

 eastward of Fresh Pond and Mount Auburn, the interesting but unprincipled 

 bird has become, within the past ten or fifteen years, a decidedly infrequent 

 visitor. Elsewhere in the Cambridge Region it occurs in numbers which have 

 apparently suffered no diminution during the past quarter of a century. 



In spring and early summer Cowbirds are most likely to be found in orchards 

 and grassy upland fields ; in late summer and early autumn they frequent pas- 

 tures where cattle are feeding and fresh-water marshes where, in company with 

 Red-winged Blackbirds and Bobolinks, they gorge themselves on the seeds of the 

 wild rice and of various rank grasses or sedges. In the swampy maple woods 

 which formerly bordered on Little River near its junction with Alewife Brook, 

 there existed, many years ago (from 1873 or 1874 to 1876), an immense Robin 

 roost to which, in late summer, large numbers of Cowbirds and Crow Blackbirds 

 resorted, to pass the night. 



The Cowbird usually remains with us through October, and is sometimes 

 seen numerously in November, while it has been known to occur in mid- 

 winter. 



133. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonap.). 

 Yellow-headed Blackbird. 



Casual visitor from the western United States. 



The only known instance of the occurrence of the Yellow-headed Blackbird 

 in the Cambridge Region is that which was reported at nearly the same time by 

 Dr. Allen' and Mr. Maynard.^ The latter says: "A single specimen was procured 

 by my young friend, Frank Sanger, at Watertown, about the 15th of October, 

 1869. The wings, tail, and one foot of this specimen are now in my possession. 

 Through the kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, I have been enabled to compare them 

 with specimens of the same species in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 thereby identifying them. This bird was in immature plumage, evidently the 

 young-of-the-year. It was shot in an orchard." 



I am unable to ascertain what has become of the interesting fragments 



ij. A. Allen, American Naturalist, III, 1870, 636. 

 ^C. J. Maynard, Naturalist's Guide, 1870, 122. 



