5^4 FlKl.D MUSFAIM OF NATURAL HiSTORY -ZooLOC.Y, VoL. IX. 



or purplish; l)ill, hkifk; iris, pale yclU)\v; winjj; over 5 inches lonj,' 

 (measured from cari)us to tij)). 



Adult female /;; sitmmcr : Dark <;rayish brown, tin.^eil with .i^^reenish 

 on the back, wings, and tail; under i)arts, grayish brown, becoming 

 dusky l)rown on the belly. 



Adult female in fall: Similar, but feathers more or less inconspicu- 

 ously edged with light grayish brown. 



The females are smaller than the males, approaching in size the 

 female Rusty Blackbird, but the difference in shape of the bill and 

 the grayish brown (not rusty l)rown) edgings to the feathers, and ab- 

 sence of pale superciliary stripe will distinguish it in fall plumage. 



Male: Length, 9.50; wing, 5.05 to 5.25; tail, 4.00; bill, .75. 



Female: Length, 9; wing, 4.50 to 4.95; tail, 3.70; bill,. 75. 



Brewer's Blackbird must be considered an accidental straggler 

 wnthin our limits. Nelson considered it " a very rare visitant " in 

 Illinois. Ridgway records a female shot at Mount Carmel, 111., in 

 December, 1866. 



In Wisconsin Mr. F. H. King records a specimen from Green Lake 

 County: "A single mature male obtained in July, on the large marsh 

 just east of Princeton." (Natural History of Wisconsin, 1883, p. 

 551.) Kumlien and Hollister state: " The only known instance of its 

 nesting in the state was at Lake Koshkonong, June 14, 1862. Two 

 or three specimens besides these have been taken at the same locality 

 in the past sixty years." (Birds of Wisconsin, 1903, p. 89.) 



Genus QUISCALUS Vieill. 



233. Quiscalus quiscula aeneus (Ridgw.). 

 Bronzed Grackle. Crow-blackbird. 



Distr. : United States, from the eastern border of the Rocky 

 Mountains to the New England coast. Apparently absent from the 

 southeastern coast states from New Jersey to Florida; breeds from 

 Pennsylvania, northern Mississippi, and Louisiana northward to New- 

 foundland, southern Labrador, and the Great Slave Lake region. 



Adult male: Whole head, neck, and upper breast, iridescent bluish 

 purple; back and under parts, bronze green; wings and tail, blackish, 

 tinged with purple; bill and feet, black; iris, pale yellow. 



Adult female: General plumage, black, much duller than the male 

 and showing comparatively little iridescence. 



Length, 11.25 to 13; wing, 5.60; tail, 5.10; bill, 1.15. 



The Bronzed Grackle is a common summer resident in Illinois 



