BIRDS OF KANSAS. 399 



with brown. Fore part of throat, superciliary and median stripe strongly 

 tinged with brownish yellow. There is some variation in the shade of red on 

 the shoulders, which is sometimes the color of arterial blood, or bright crimson. 

 It never, however, has the hsematitic tint of the red in a A. tricolor. The middle 

 coverts are usually uniformly brownish yellow to the very tips ; sometimes 

 some of these middle coverts are tipped at the end with black, but these black 

 tips are usually of slight extent, and indicate immaturity, or else a transition of 

 hybridism or race to A. gubernator." 



Stretch of 

 Length. wing. Wing. Tail. Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 9.25 15.00 4.90 3.75 1.12 .90 



Female... 7.80 12.50 3.90 3.00 1.05 .75 



Iris dark brown; bill dark brown to black; legs, feet and 

 claws black. 



This common species frequents the prairies, low meadows and 

 marshy grass lands, preferring grounds dotted over with low, 

 scattering bushes. During the fall and winter months they as- 

 semble in large flocks, and do much damage in the rice fields, 

 and are often more or less injurious to the grains within their 

 summer homes; but the damage they do in the latter case is 

 overbalanced by the destruction of injurious insects, upon which 

 they almost wholly feed during the breeding season; busy hunt- 

 ers of the field and followers of the plow. It is only within 

 their winter quarters that I am unable to find sufficient plea for 

 their protection. 



The birds arrive from the south early in the spring, and scat- 

 ter about in small flocks; the males arrive about a week in 

 advance, and make their presence known from early morn till 

 late at eve, by their peculiar squeaky song, " Kauk-quer-ree. " 

 Their courtships are short, the birds mating soon after the arri- 

 val of the females. 



Their nests are placed in low bushes and occasionally in tus- 

 socks of grass, on wet, marshy grounds; a rather compact basket- 

 like nest, composed of coarse grasses, weeds, and in some cases 

 bits of rushes, fastened to and around the branches upon and 

 against which it rests, and lined with fine grasses. Eggs four 

 or five, .97x.70; light blue, with thick, zigzag markings of light 

 and dark purple and blackish brown around larger end, and a 

 few spots of the same colors scattered over the egg; in form, 

 oval. 



