338 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



2. Breast and belly without black. 



§. Throat black; under parts chestnut. Orchard Oriole, (adult 



male). 

 §§. Under parts not chestnut; throat not black. 



?. Under parts buffy, occasionally black streaked. Bobolink. 



(female). 

 ??. Under parts grayish or slate color, 

 a'. Grayish below. Cowbird. (female), 

 a^. Slate colored below and above. Rusty Blackbird, (female). 



Genus DOLICHONYX Swainson. 



494. Dolkhonyx oryzworiis (Linn.). Bobolink: Skunk 

 Blackbird; Butterbird; Ricebird; Maybird; Meadow-wink; 

 Reed-bird. 



Plumage of adult male in breeding plumage : a buff patch on back of neck 

 and middle of back usually streaked with same ; scapulars and rump grayish 

 white or whitish ; top and sides of head, wings, tail and under parts black ; 

 the feathers of under parts more or less tipped with huffish fringe which 

 wears away in late spring and summer. Plumage of adult female in breed- 

 ing plumage : crown blackish with central huffish stripe ; upper parts olive 

 buff streaked with black ; wings and tail fuscous ; under parts yellowish or 

 buffy. Plumage of fall and immature adults : much like the female but 

 huffier below and more olivaceous above. Wing 3.80 ; culmen 0.56. 



Geog. Dist.— North America ; breeding from southern New Jersey to Nova 

 Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec, westward to Utah and northern Mon- 

 tana; migrating through the United States and wintering in South America. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; common summer resident, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; not rare at Fort Fairfield, (Batchelder, B. N. 0. C. 7, p. 149) ; 

 the species occurs between St. Francis and Fort Kent in the Woolastook Val- 

 ley, and the denials of all the know-it-alls in the world can't prevent it from 

 being there, (Knight); seen at Fort Kent, (Morin). Cumberland; common 

 summer resident, (Mead). Franklin; common summer resident, (Swain). 

 Hancock; summer resident, (Murch). Kennebec; common summer resident, 

 (Gardiner Branch). Knox; summer, (Rackliff). Oxford; common, breeds, 

 (Nash). Penobscot; common summer resident, (Knight). Piscataquis; com- 

 mon, breeds, (Homer). Sagadahoc ; common summer resident, (Spinney). 

 Somerset; common summer resident, (Morrell). Waldo; common summer 

 resident, (Knight). Washington; very abundant summer resident, (Board- 

 man). York; rarely breeds, (Adams). 



The first Bobolinks appear between May fifth and May 



tenth, and are seemingly males, or at least the bright noisy 



