THE EUSTY BLACKBIED. 493 



1892, represents one of the ordinarily marked types; and No. 26920 (PL 7, Fig. 

 16), from a set of fonr, also in the Ralph collection, taken May 23, 1893, repre- 

 sents still another style of markings, which is not as common as the two former; 

 the last two eggs were taken in Herkimer County, New York. 



192. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus (Wagler). 



BREWER'S BLACKBIRD. 



Psarocolius cyanocephalus WAaLEB, Isis, 1829, 758. 

 Scolecophagus cyanocephalus Oabanis, Museum Heineauum, 1851, 193. 

 (B 418, G 222, E 274, C 332, U 510.) 



Geographical range: Westeru North America; north to British Columbia and the 

 Proviuces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, in the Dominion of Gauada; east to Manitoba, 

 Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian Territory, and Texas; south to Lower California 

 and over the Mexican table-lands to Oaxaca. Occasionally in winter to Iowa, Wisconsin, 

 Missouri, and Illinois; casually to Louisiana and South Carolina. 



Brewer's Blackbird, or the Blue-headed Grackle, is the western represent- 

 ative of the preceding species, and its breeding range is coextensive with its 

 geographical distribution, excepting along its eastern border, where it is limited 

 to northwestern Minnesota, the western parts of Nebraska, Kansas, the Indian 

 Territory, and to nearly all of Texas, excluding only the extreme eastern por- 

 tions and the immediate vicinity of the Gulf coast. 



Brewer's Blackbird is common and is well known thi'oughout the West; is 

 found almost everywhei-e, in suitable localities, from the eastern slopes of the 

 Rocky Mountains to the Pacific coast. It is equally abundant on the Great 

 Plains, and breeds in large numbers in Manitoba and portions of Saskatchewan, 

 where it reaches the northern limits of its range in about latitude 54° north 

 Longitude 96° west from Greenwich marks about the eastern limits of its breed- 

 ing range in the United States. Mr. Henry Nehrling reports it as breeding near 

 Spring Creek, some 30 miles north of Houston, Texas, on May 5, 1881; and 

 Dr. P. L. Hatch, in his "Birds of Minnesota," records it as an abundant summer 

 resident along the Red River, in northwestern Minnesota. It is only partly 

 migratory in the western United States, where some of these birds can be seen 

 throughout the year. I have met with it in January, at Fort Colville, Wash- 

 ington; and at Fort Walla Walla a large flock, numbering fully five hundred 

 birds, wintered regularly within the limits of the Post, feeding in the daytime 

 on the refuse grain found about the cavalry stables, and roosting in the cotton- 

 woods in the immediate vicinity at night. They were exceedingly tame and 

 familiar while feeding, and although frequently shot for food and harassed 

 daily by Prairie Falcons, Richardson's and Suckley's Merlins, and Pigeon 

 Hawks, which subsisted almost entirely on them, they persisted in remaining, 

 allowing a person to approach within a few feet of them while on the ground. 

 I consider it the most confiding of all our Blackbirds. Mr. R. H. Lawrence 

 writes that he saw a large flock at Seattle in December, 1891, and one or more 



