BLACKBIRDS 355 



Plumage of adult male in summer : glossy bluish black. Plumage of adult 

 male in fall and winter : similar, the feathers above tipped with rusty and 

 the feathers below with ochraceous. Plumage of females and immature : 

 greenish black washed with brown ; feathers above tipped with rusty and 

 below with ochraceous. Wing 4.55 ; culmen 0.75 ; tail 3.60, feathers nearly 

 equal length. 



Geog. Dist.— Eastern North America west to Alaska and the Plains ; breed- 

 ing from northern Maine, northern New York and northern Michigan north- 

 ward ; accidental in Lower California. 



County Records. — Androscoggin; fairly common migrant, (Johnson). 

 Aroostook ; summer resident of the wilder sections, especially the Woolastook 

 Valley and tributaries, (Knight). Cumberland ; migrant, (Mead). Franklin; 

 rare summer resident, specimens shot late in June, (Swain); common summer 

 resident, (Sweet). Hancock; fairly common fall migrant, (Mrs. W. H. Gar- 

 dener); rare summer resident of Union River waters, (Knight). Kennebec ; 

 (Larrabee). Knox ; migrant, (Rackliff). Oxford ; (Nash). Penobscot; com- 

 mon migrant, rare summer resident, (Knight). Piscataquis ; common summer 

 resident, (Homer). Sagadahoc; common migrant, (Spinney). Somerset; 

 common migrant, Morrell) ; several pair seen near Rowe Pond in July and 

 evidently breeding, (Knight). Waldo; common migrant, I think rarely 

 summer resident, (Knight). Washington; common migrant and rare sum- 

 mer resident, (Boardman) ; a flock has been seen about Calais nearly all 

 winter, (Boardman, J. M. 0. S. 1899, p. 28). 



In southern Maine the species occurs from March fifteenth 

 through April and in the fall through September and October. 

 In the wilder sections of northern Maine about the lakes and 

 ponds it arrives about as soon as the ice has left in early May 

 and remains until well into September. Small flocks of fifteen 

 or twenty are often seen about Bangor in late March, sitting 

 bunched up on a tree or feeding on the ground, uttering a 

 shrill "queak" interspersed with frequent sounds like "chack" 

 "cluck" and "chuck." 



Their breeding grounds are along the streams and rivers of 

 northern Maine and in the more isolated localities, and usually 

 only one pair will be found in a given territory. About the 

 dead water of a stream or on the shores of a pond near the 

 mouth of a sluggish stream they are most frequently found. 

 The nest is a bulky structure of moss, mud, small twigs, lined 

 with fine grasses, sedges and moss. Four to five eggs are said 

 to be the number usually laid, and these are described as 



