THE SWAMP BLACKBIRD. 341 



dashes and confluent blotches of brown, thickest at the 

 greater end. 1 



By the last week in October, the young and old birds 

 assemble in large flocks, and leave for -the South. 



AGELAIUS, VIEILLOT. 



Agelaius, VIEILLOT, "Analyse, 1816." (Type Oriolus Phoeniceus, L.) 

 First quill shorter than second ; claws short ; the outer lateral scarcely reaching 

 the base of the middle; culmen depressed at base, parting the frontal feathers; 

 length equal to that of the head, shorter than tarsus ; both mandibles of equal thick- 

 ness and acute at tip, the edges much curved, the culmen, gonys, and commissure 

 nearly straight or slightly sinuated; the length of bill about twice its height; tail 

 moderately rounded, or very slightly graduated ; wings pointed, reaching to end of 

 lower tail coverts ; colors black, with red shoulders in North-American species. 



The nostrils are small, oblong, overhung by a membranous scale ; the bill is 

 higher than broad at the base; there is no division between the anterior tarsal 

 scutellae and the single plate on the outside of the tarsus. 



AGELAIUS PHCENICEUS. Vidllot. 

 The Swamp Blackbird; Red-wing Blackbird. 



Oriolus Phoeniceus, Linnaeus. Syst. Nat., I. (1766) 161. 

 Agelaius Phoeniceus, Vieillot. Anal. (1816). 



Icterus Phoeniceus, Audubon. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 348; V. (1839) 487. 

 Icterus (Xanthornus Phoeniceus), Bonaparte. Syn. (1828), 52. Nutt. Man., I. 

 (1832) 167. 



Sturnus prcedatorius, Wilson. Am. Orn., IV. (1811) 30. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Tail much rounded ; the lateral feathers about half an inch shorter ; fourth quill 

 longest; first about as long as the fifth; bill large, stout; half as high, or more than 

 half as high as long. 



Male. General color uniform lustrous velvet-black, with a greenish reflection ; 

 shoulders and lesser wing coverts of a bright-crimson or vermilion-red ; middle 

 coverts brownish-yellow, and usually paler towards the tips. 



1 By an amusing yet incomprehensible mistake of the printer, the subjoined 

 description of eggs, &c., was annexed to this species, in an article published in the 

 " Report of the U. S. Department of Agriculture for 1864," p. 426. It belongs to 

 the Chewink or Ground Robin, page 425 of that volume: "Their form varies from 

 elongated oval to nearly spherical. The dimensions of a nest complement of four 

 eggs, collected in Quincy, Mass., are 1 by .74 inch, .96 by .72 inch, .90 by .70 inch, 

 .90 by .68 inch : other specimens do not vary materially from these measurements. 

 But one brood is usually reared in the season. This bird, although subsisting prin- 

 cipally on various seeds and small fruits, destroys great numbers of insects, particu- 

 larly in the breeding season : in fact, its young are fed entirely on insects and their 

 larvae, and the well-known wire- worms." 



