THE EUSTY BLACKBIRD. 493 



iSM-i represents ..ue of the ordinarily marked types; and No. 26920 (PI. 7, Fig. 

 1(0, from a set of four, also in the Ralph collection, taken May 23, 1893 repre- 

 sents still another style of markings, which is not as common as the two tormer; 

 the last two eggs were taken in Herkimer County, New \ork. 



192. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus (Waolek). 



BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. 

 rsaroclius cyanocephalus WagLEB, Isis, 1829, 758. 



rT^nrPAPniCAL range: Western North America ; north to British OohxmbiaamUhe 

 Vroy^^T^^^^^^--^^^^^-^ ^'- Donuniou of Canada; east to Manitoba 

 rZe o'Vkb'tka, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas; sonth to Lower Cahtornn. 

 ^;d"^thrt;" i.-a; tabhvlands to Oaxaca. Oeeasionally in winter to Iowa, Wisconsu,, 

 Missouri, and Illinois; casnally to Louisiana and South Carolina. 



Brewer's Blackbird, or the Blue-headed Urackle, is the western repi^sent- 

 ative of the preceding species, and its breeding range is coextensive with its 

 feoLphical distributLi excepting along its eastern bonier where 1 tis limited 

 ^IrLestern Minnesota, the western part, of N^,raska, ^^^^ ^^^ 

 Territory, and to nearly all of Texas, excluding only the extreme eastern poi- 

 tions and the immediate vicinity of the Gult coast. , . .1 Axr .. ;« 



Brewer's Blackl>ird is common and is well known tln-oughout the West; is 

 tVnm.l ahuost everywhere, in suitable localities, from the eastern slopes ot ri>e 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. It is equally abundan on the Gieat 

 SSii, and bleeds in large immbers in Manitoba and P-^^-^ .^^^3; 

 where it reaches the northern limits of its range m about atitxide 54 no h 

 Lonoitude 90° west from Greenwich marks about the eastern limits of its bieed- 

 ng rWe in the United States. Mr. Henry Nehrling reports it as breeding- iiea^ 

 Sm-inff Creek some 30 miles north of Houston, Texas, on May 5, 18S1, and 

 ^7l ^^h, in Iris "Birds of Minnesota," records it as an almndant smnmer 

 esident'ah.ng he Red River, in northwestern Mimiesota. t is only part^^ 

 Xttory in the western United States, where some of these birds caji l^n 

 thi-ouo-hcmt the year. I have met with it in January, at F<n-t Colville Wasli- 

 If : it Fort Walla Walla a large flock, numbering fully five hundred 

 r^ ;v ii tered reo-ularly within the limits of the Post, feeding m the daytime 

 ;: 2^: gi^in W about the cavalry stables, and roosting in the cottcm- 

 : ds in the Immediate vicinity at night. They -- --^^-^^VZx^^ 

 familiar while feeding, and although fre.piently shot for food and luuasscd 

 HW by Prairie Falcons, Richardson's and Suckley's Merlins, and Pigeon 

 h1 which subsisted almost entirely on them, they per^sted --mamm^ 

 . V.Win - a r,erson to approach within a few feet of them whde on the gionnd. 

 2 kle t the n.ost'confiding of all our Blackbirds. Mr. R. H. Lawrence 

 VI ttu he saw a large flock at Seattle in December, 1891, and one or more 



