394 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 
August 18th, 1901. (Spreadborough.) Abundant summier resident 
and breeds throughout the region between the forks of the Sas- 
katchewan in company with the blackbird. (Couwbeaux.) Two 
pairs seen at Fort McMurray, at the forks of the Clearwater and 
Athabasca rivers in Lat. 56° 30’. (J. M@. Macoun.) From Van- 
couver Island to Okanagan, B.C. (Fannin.) Tolerably common 
east of, and a straggler west of, the Coast Range. (Bvooks.) This 
bird arrives in the northwest with the blackbirds and ranges to 
Lat. 60°. (Richardson.) 
Their nesting habits are such that almost every small bird be- 
comesa foster parent for them except the tyrant flycatcher, which 
far from being the aggressive bird he is supposed to be is only a 
successful defender, 
MUSEUM SPECIMENS. 
Thirteen specimens ; two taken at Ottawa, Ont., in June, 1888, 
by Prof. Macoun ; two taken at Ottawa in 1890 and 1891, and one 
at London, Ont., in 1885 by F. A. Saunders; two at Medicine 
Hat, Assa., in May, 1894, two at Indian Head, Assa., in May, 
1892, two at Canmore, Rocky Mountains, in May, 1891, and one 
at Revelstoke, B.C., in May, 1890, all by Mr. Spreadborough. 
CLXXVI]. XKANTHOCBEPHALUS Bonaparte. 1850. 
497. Yellow-headed Blackbird. 
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (BONAP.) JORDAN. 1884. 
One specimen obtained at Nevertalik, Greenland, September 
2nd, 1820. (Arct. Man.). Taken at Godbout, Quebec, in September, 
1878. (Dionne.) This species has been taken at Toronto a number 
of times in company with the red-winged blackbird by Mr. Wm 
Loane. The specimen I examined was taken by that gentleman. 
(Thompson-Seton in The Auk, Vol. I1., 335.) The specimen above 
mentioned is now in the possession of Mr. J. H. Fleming, of 
Toronto. 
In the breeding season the yellow-headed blackbird gathers in 
colonies in seme marshy spot. At Pembina it was breeding in 
the prairie sloughs with the black terns and red-wings. (Cozes.) 
A common summer resident of the deeper sloughs of the prairie 
region ; more plentiful to the southward in Manitoba. (Zhomp- 
son-Seton.) This bird is very numerous in the Northwest Terri- 
tories and ranges as far north as Lat. 58°, but was not seen east 
