THE SWAMP BLACKBIRD. 341 



dashes and confluent blotches of brown, thickest at the 

 greater end.^ 



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 Phceniceus, 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 

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



AGELAIUS PHCENICEUS. — Wieillot. 



The Swamp Blackbird; Red-wing Blackbird. 



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

 Agelaius Phceniceus, Vieillot. Anal. (1816). 



Icterus Phceniceus, Audubon. Orn. Biog., L (1831) 348; V. (1839) 487. 

 Icterus (Xanthornus Phceniceus), 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. 

 3ut 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.'' 



