BLACKBIRDS 343 



greater portion of the food brought and finally thrusts the 

 rightful tenant's young from the nest to starve. Sometimes 

 the old Cowbird throws out part of the eggs in the nest at the 

 time she lays her own, and at other times the young Cowbird 

 may throw them out before they hatch. 



At about ten days age the young Cowbird is able to leave 

 the nest and vociferously call " peer, perr " from some near by 

 bush, while its foster parents, often not two-thirds as large, 

 strive faithfully to fill its wide open mouth. The only call I 

 have ever heard from adult Cowbirds is a gutteral " quieack." 

 As the Cowbird only has its young reared by sacrificing the 

 lives of several young of our most beneficial species which 

 would if allowed to grow up do far more good, it becomes 

 evident that it is indirectly injurious and therefore undesirable. 



Genus XANTHOCEPHALUS Bonaparte. 



*'497. XantJiocephalus ocanthocephalus (Bonap.). Yellow- 

 headed Blackbird. 



Plumage of adult male : chin and feathers in front of eyes black ; head, 

 neck, throat and breast, yellow ; outer wing coverts white ; otherwise wholly 

 black. Plumage of adult female : forehead, throat, breast, sides of head and 

 line over eye yellow, somewhat mixed with white ; lower breast brownish 

 dusky mixed with white ; otherwise grayish brown. Wing 5.70 ; culmen 0.85. 



Geog. Dist. — Western North America, breeding from Indian Territory 

 northward to Manitoba, east to Illinois ; wintering from the Southern States 

 southward ; casual in many of the Eastern States and accidental in Cuba 

 and Greenland. 



County Records. — Knox ; a specimen was taken by Fred Rackliff at Spruce 

 Head, August 17, 1882, (Norton, Auk. 11, pp. 78-79). 



Though a mere straggler with us, only known in this one 



instance, the species is common enough in the middle west. 



They are birds of the reedy marshes and swamps, similar 



indeed in their habits to our well known Redwing. They 



often nest in such places in large colonies, being social enough 



as far as their own species is concerned, but seemingly being 



in colonies of their own species only. 



