358 BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



III, Underparts grayish, slate-color, chestnut, or buffy. 



A. Underparts grayish or slate-color. 



a. Underparts grayish; bill finchlike; wing under 4'00. 



495. COWBIRD 9. 



6. Underparts slate-color, sometimes tipped with brownish, bill 

 thrushlike; wing over 4*00 . . . 509. RUSTY BLACKBIRD 9. 



B. Underparts buffy or chestnut. 



a. Underparts buffy, generally with a few black streaks. 



494. BOBOLINK 9. 

 6. Underparts buffy, without black streaks; tail about 5'00. 



513. BOAT-TAILED CRACKLE 9. 

 c. Underparts chestnut ; throat black. . 506. ORCHARD ORIOLE (& ad.) . 



IV. Underparts black and white, or black tipped or margined with 



rusty. 



a. Underparts streaked black and white, or black tipped with white; 

 shoulder generally red or reddish. 



RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS (9 and im.). 

 6. Upperparts and underparts tipped with rusty. 



509. RUSTY BLACKBIRD (im.). 

 c. Nape buffy, rump whitish 494. BOBOLINK cf . 



494. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linn.). BOBOLINK. Ad. <?, breeding 

 plumage. Top and sides of the head and underparts black, the feathers 

 more or less tipped with a narrow whitish or cream-buff fringe, which wears 

 off as the season advances; back of the neck with a large yellowish cream- 

 buff patch; middle of back generally streaked with cream-buff; scapulars, 

 lower back, and upper tail-coverts soiled grayish white; wings and tail 

 black; tail-feathers with pointed tips; bill blue-black. Ad. 9. Upperparts 

 olive-buff, streaked with black; crown blackish, with a central stripe of 

 olive-buff; nape finely spotted and back broadly streaked with black; wings 

 and tail brownish fuscous : tail-feathers with pointed tips; underparts yellow- 

 ish or buffy white. Ads. in fall and Im. Similar to female, but buffier and 

 more olivaceous throughout. L., 7 25; W., 3'76; T., 273; B., '55. 



Remarks. The young and adults in fall plumage are known as Reed- 

 birds. Adults acquire this plumage by a complete molt after the breeding 

 season. The breeding plumage. is regained by a complete molt in the spring, 

 and not, as has been supposed, by a change in the color of the feathers with- 

 out molting. Freshly plumaged males have the black veiled by yellow tips 

 to the feathers; these gradually wear off, and by June have almost entirely 

 disappeared (cf. Chapman, Auk, X, 1893, 309). 



Range. N. and S. A. Breeds mainly in Transition zone from se. B. C., 

 cen. Alberta, cen. Sask., cen. Man., cen. Ont., cen. Que., and Cape Breton 

 Is. s. to ne. Nev., Utah, n. Mo., Ills., Ind., cen. Ohio, W. Va., Pa., and N. J.; 

 winters in S. A. to s. Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay; in migration to the West 

 Indies and e. coast of Cen. Am. ; casual in Calif. ; accidental in Bermuda and 

 the Galapagos. (See Fig. 7.) 



Washington, T. V., common in spring, abundant in fall; Apl. 26-May 

 30; July 23-Nov. 14. Ossining, tolerably common S. R., May 1-Oct. 5. 

 Cambridge, very common S. R., May 8-Sept. 10. N. Ohio, common S. R. v 

 Apl. 16-Oct. 10. Glen Ellyn, S. R., Apl. 27-Oct. 9. SE. Minn., common 

 S. R., Mch. 5-Aug. 27. 



Nest, of grasses, on the ground. Eggs, 4-7, grayish white, frequently 

 tinged with the color of the numerous irregular spots and blotches of olive- 

 brown or umber, '85 x '62. Date, Ossining, N. Y., May 29; Cambridge, 

 June 1; Erie Co., N. Y., May 15; Austin, Ills., May 20. 



In June our fields and meadows echo with the Bobolink's "mad 

 music" as, on quivering wing, he sings in ecstasy to his mate on her 



