356 BIEDS — ICTEEID^aB. 



Abundant summer resident from March 1st to November. Breeds. 

 The Red-winged or Swamp Blackbird frequents swamps and marshes, 

 both of great and small extent. In the spring they appear in small 

 flocks, but in the fall collect together sometimes by thousands. When 

 perched on the low trees or high weeds of a marsh, it presents an attrac- 

 tive appearance, but its notes are, to say the least, unmusical, being a 

 singular combination of clear and guttural sounds, frequently repeated, 

 as if he was intent on learning to sing, but failed at every effort. 



The nest of the Red-winged Blackbird is usually placed in the low 

 willows of a swamp, and frequently considerable numbers breed together. 

 It is built chiefly of hempen fibres of plants, with strips of the leaves and 

 outer covering of the stems of cat-tails. Usually it is placed in an up- 

 right fork, or firmly attached to several upright twigs. Sometimes it is 

 placed on the ground. The eggs are of a light bluish color, very variable, 

 lined and blotched with purplish and black. Their average measurement 

 is one inch by three-fourths of an inch. 



Genus XANTHOCEPHALUS. Bonaparte. 



Bill about twice as long as high, its outlines nearly straight. Claws all very long, 

 much curved, the inner the longest, reaching beyond middle of middle claw. Tail nar- 

 row, nearly even, the outer web scarcely widening to the end. Wings long, much longer 

 than the tail ; first quill longest. 



Xanthocephalus icterocephalus (Bp.) Bd. ' 



"ireUoTV-liead.ed Blaolrbird. 



Xanthoceplialus icteroceplialus, CoUBS, Birds of N. W,, 1874, 189 (probable). — Wheaton, 

 Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 567 ; Eeprint, 1875, 7. 



Icteriis icierocephalus, Bonaparte, Am. Orn., i, 1835, 27. 

 Xanihocephalua ioterocephalm, Baird, Birds N. Am,, 1858, 531. 



Male black, whole head (except lores), neck, and upper breast yellow, and sometimes 

 yellowish feathers on the belly and legs ; a large white patch on the wing, formed by 

 the primary and a few of the outer secondary coverts. Female and young brownish- 

 black, with little or no white on the wing, the yellow restricted or obscured. Female, 

 much smaller than the male, about 9i. Length, 10-11; wing, 5^; tail, A\. 



Habitat, Western North America; north to the Saskatchewan and Eed River; east 

 regularly to Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, casually to Greenland, Massachusetts, Penn- 

 sylvania, and Forida ; south to Mexico. 



Accidental. My only authority for inserting this species here is Mr. 

 W. R. Limpert, a competent ornithologist, who is familiar with this 

 species in the West. Hte informs me that in the summer of 1873, a pair 

 of these birds made their appearance in a low meadow, a few miles south 

 of Groveport, in this county, where they probably bred. 



In its habits this species resembles the prec eding, being highly gre- 



