814 



BIKDS OF ILLINOIS. 



white, broadly streaked with dusky, the chin, and throat, sometimes sides of head also, 

 usually more or less tinged with buff or pink. Lesser wing-coverts sometimes dark brown 

 red. Total length (fresh), 7.45-8.25: extent. 12.15-13.00. "First plumaoe, female. Above 

 dark seal-brown; every feather of the crown, nape and interscapular region, with the 

 greater and middle wing-coverts, primaries, .secondaries, and tertiaries. edged and tipped 

 with browni.sh fulvous. Beneath light yellowish-brown, thickly and broadly streaked 

 everywhere with dull black. Sides of throat and head, including a considerable space 

 around the eye, bare skin (of a brownish orange color in the dried specimen), with a few 

 scattering pin-fe.athers. (From a specimen in my collection obtained at Cambridge, 

 Mass., June 24, 1872.) Males in first plumage, before me, differ but Little from the indivi- 

 dual above described. All have the bare spaces on the sides of the throat, although these 

 are feathered before the first moult is begun. A male in transitional dress (collected at 

 Ipswich.Mass.. July 15.1874), with the head fuUy feathered, has the throat dull brownish 

 yellow, with a strong tinge of the same color on the breast. The wing and tail-feathers 

 are renewed during the first moult. 



"Autumnal plumage: young m.ale. Crown dark brown, with a faint rusty edging 

 upon each feather; nape brownish yellow, with a rusty tinge, finely spotted with a dark 

 brown; interscapular region, and a broad outer edging upon the secondaries and tertia- 

 ries, deep dull reddish-brown, each feather having a broad V-shaped mark of dull black. 

 Eump glossy black, every feather edged with fulvous ashy; shoulder dull red with black 

 spotting; middle coverts fulvous; greater coverts tipped with the same color. Super- 

 ciliary stripe brownish yellow. A space anterior to and beneath the eye dusky black. 

 Entire under parts black, each feather upon the abdomen edged broadly with pale ashy, 

 elsewhere with yellowish brown. The light edging of the feathers gives the under parts 

 a conspicuously scutellate appearance. (From a specimen in my collection taken at 

 Cambridge, Mass., October 6. 1776.) This plumage (although not to my knowledge pre- 

 viously described by writers) is the characteristic one of the young in autumn. I am un- 

 able to state if the adult male retains his uniform black coloring at all seasons, A re- 

 markable variation from the typic.il plumage is afforded by a fine adult male in my 

 cabinet, which has a broad crescentie patch of pale yellow tinged with rose-color upon 

 the breast. Nor is this specimen unique, for I have seen several others with a similar 

 but less conspicuous mark. It probably represents an exceptionally high condition or 

 phase of ornamentation, like the commoner one of scarlet or yellow wing-markings, in 

 the Scarlet Tanager (Fyranga ruhra). Very old females of A. phaniceuK have the throat 

 a delicate peach-color; illustrated by several specimens in my cabinet from Nantucket 

 and Ipswitch.Mass." (Bbewsteb,B«7!. Nutt. Orn. CT«6,Oct„1878,p. 175.) 



The common Eed-winged Blackbird is one of our most abundant 

 and best known birds. Every marsh and open swamp is inhabited 

 by numbers in the spring and summer, while in autumn they col- 

 lect in large flocks, sometimes of such extent as to cause serious 

 damage to the farmer's grain stacks. In the extreme southern por- 

 tion of the State they sometimes winter, congregating in large flocks, 

 from which they daily sally forth to forage over the surrounding country. 

 Even during the spring and summer the Redwings are gregarious, 

 for they breed in communities, hundreds of pairs sometimes nesting 

 in one marsh. The males are polygamous, each having under his 

 protection from two to three or four demure looking females, hardly 

 half his size, and dressed in homely garb, who attend quietly and 

 assiduously to their domestic duties, while their lord and master 



