376 Dr. Coues on the 



name. S. cyanocephulus is southerly ; it returns to Mexico in 

 winter. The summer is spent in the United States, where it arrives 

 in flocks, which break up on reaching their destination, to breed"^. 

 It likewise is quite independent of waterf, and in other respects 

 is the counterpart of S. ferrugineus. Both these water-freed 

 species, it should be observed, lay plain-spotted eggs, more 

 resembling in pictura (though not in tint) those of the agrarian 

 Starlings [Sturnella) than the singularly-limned ones that all 

 our lacustrine and maritime species lay. 



Turning now to Quiscalus, we find in this genus alone species 

 that exhibit some of the leading characteristics of each of the 

 other genera and have one superadded feature. The commonest 

 example of the genus, Q, versicolor, corresponds in latitu- 

 dinal range with A. phceniceus, breeding in eligible situations in 

 the United States but not beyond — in longitude with S. ferru- 

 gineus, being restricted to the eastern province. Like the last, 

 it is in the greatest measure independent of water, frequenting 

 cultivated districts at a season when its depredations ai-e most 

 felt and most injurious to the agriculturalist ; its scolecophagous 

 nature, however, is not the less real because less conspicuous. 

 It breeds, for the most part, in colonies, like the Yellow-headed 

 Troopial ; it may choose for a nesting-place trees that need not 

 be near water. In restriction of geographical range alone, 

 Q. major corresponds with the two western Agelcei; in other 

 respects, it is more widely differentiated from any of the birds 

 we have considered than these are from each other. We have 

 particularly to notice, then, what special modifications | appear 

 as a consequence of its decidedly maritime conditions. 



The Boat-tailed Grackle is preeminent in its family by its 

 aquatic disposition ; this is as well marked as it is in many or 

 most Limicolce. Besides feeding among the swaying reeds, upon 



* The breeding-range of this species, as compared with that of its con- 

 gener, corresponds with that of the western Eremophila, as compared with 

 E. cornuta proper — and to the southward extension of certain prairie Plec- 

 trophana, as compared with P. nivalis and others. 



+ Thus I found it abundant in spring and fall on the pine-clad moun- 

 tains of Arizona. 



+ Probably also shared by Q. macrurus, which seems to be the south- 

 ward continuation of this maritime Blackbirdism. 



