BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 205 



any sort of garbage suited to their appetite ; sometimes they pursue and 

 attack the small terns and gulls, to force them to disgorge the small fish 

 that they have captured. They are able to capture live fish with con- 

 siderable dexterity, but cannot feed on the wing. During the winter and 

 spring, the Fish Crows are very fond of feeding on many kinds of ber- 

 ries. As spring advances, and the early fruits ripen, the Fish Crows be- 

 come fond of the mulberry, and select the choicest of the ripe figs, more 

 especially when they are feeding their young. A dozen are often seen 

 at a time, searching for the tree which has the best figs, and so trouble- 

 some do they become in the immediate vicinity of Charleston, that it is 

 found necessary to station a man near a fig tree with a gun. They also 

 eat pears, as well as various kinds of huckleberries. 



FAMILY ICTERID-ffi. BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



Nine species and one race of this family are found in Pennsylvania. With the ex- 

 ception of the Yellow-headed Blackbird, which occurs sometimes, it is said, in the 

 western part of the state, straggling here from western North America, all of these 

 birds are common ; some reside with us during all months of the year ; the Rusty 

 Blackbird retires considerablv north of this latitude to breed, but all the others rear 

 their young within our limits. In the Cowbird and Bobolink the bill is short, stout 

 and very similar to that of a sparrow's, but this organ in other birds of this family is 

 rather long and slender. In the neighborhood of Lake Erie the Redwing is known 

 to gunners as Reed-bird, and I have heard farmers who reside in the vicinity of 

 Conneaut lake in Crawford county, and also others living about Lake Erie, say that 

 these "Reed-birds?' commit serious depredations in their cornfields in the latter 

 part of summer and in the early fall. 



GENUS DOLICHONYX SWAINSON. 

 Dolichonyx oryzivorus (LiNN.) 



Bobolink ; Reed-bird. 



DESCRIPTION (Plate 26 male and female in spring). 



Bill short, stout, conical and much shorter than head ; tail feathers sharp-pointed 

 and stiff, quite like a woodpecker's ; claws all very large ; middle toe very long, 

 measuring with claw 1.25 inches ; bill dark, lighter at base of lower mandible ; legs 

 and feet (freshly killed specimens) brownish-yellow ; iris brown. General color of 

 male in spring and during breeding season (June and July) black; the nape 

 brownish-cream color ; a patch on the side of the breast, the scapulars and rump 

 white, shading into light ash on the upper tail-coverts and the back below the inter- 

 scapular region. In autumn similar to the ibmale. In the early autumn males are 

 often seen with black feathers (sometimes though seldom in patches) on the breast. 



Female, yellowish beneath ; two stripes on the top of the head, and the upper 

 parts throughout, except the back of the neck and rump, and including all the wing 

 feathers generally, dark-brown, all edged with brownish-yellow ; which becomes 

 whiter nearer the tips of the quills ; the sides sparsely streaked with dark-brown, 

 and a similar stripe behind the eye ; there is a superciliary and a median band of 

 yellow on the head. 



