198 SCOLECOPHAGUS FEREUGINEUS, RUSTY GRACKLE. 



greatest diameter, wMcli is much nearer the larger than the smaller 

 eud. In color they are very pale bluish, or rather whitish, with a faint, 

 dull blue shade, and are everywhere irregularly overrun with fine, sharp 

 hair lines of blackish-brown, or blackish with a slight tinge of purplish. 

 These curious zigzag markings are characteristic o-f the eggs of a ma- 

 jority of the birds of the family {Icteridce). They have no definite style, 

 but wander at random over the surface, and in no two specimens are 

 they alike. Thus, in one specimen, the lines, fine as hairs, are wound 

 round and rouud the butt, with such regularity that they hardly ever 

 interfere; in others they are snarled up in difiPereiit places, and some- 

 times, particularly at a sharp turning-point, the lines spread into little 

 spots ; and there are often a few such isolated markings in various 

 places over the egg." 



Further accounts of the nidification of this beautiful species are given. 

 Mr. Merriain, who found it very abundant in Utah, and collected in 

 June no less than sixteen nests, containing over sixty eggs, says : 



" They build a beautiful hanging nest, often ten and a half inches 

 deep, and composed of fibres of grass, flax, and the inner bark of vines, 

 which is generally lined with wool. The first lot were deep and solid ; 

 were composed chiefly of the fibres of flax and dry grass, and had a 

 grayish appearance, while the second lot — which were built by the same 

 birds after their first Ijad been taken — were not very deep, had evidently 

 been made in haste, and were principally composed of the inner bark 

 of small bushes and vines, giving them a brownish look. They gen- 

 erally conceal their nests among the leaves on the top of a willow, from 

 eight to ten feet above the ground, in such a position that it rocks to 

 and fro whenever there is a little wind." 



' SCOLECOPHAGUS FEERUGIXBUS, (Gm.) Sw. * ' - . 



Rusty Grackle. 



Oriohis fetrugineus, Gm., Syst. Nat. i, 1788, 393.— Lath., IncT. Orn. i, 1790, 176. 



Gracula ferrvginea, WiLS., Am. Orn. iii, 1811, 41, pi. 21, f. 3. 



Quiscalus ferrugineus, Bp., Obs. Wils. 18-24, No. 46; Syn. 1828, 55.— Ndtt., Man. i, 1832, 



199.— Add., Orn. Biog. ii, 1834, 325 ; v, 1839, 483 : pi. 147 ; Syn. 1839, 146 ; B. 



Am. iv, 65, pi. 222.— GiR., B. L. I. 1844, 146.— Maxim., J. f. 6. vi, 1858, 204.— 



Tbippe, Pr. Ess. Inst, vi, 1871, 117 (west to Red River). 

 Scoleeoj>liagns ferrugineus, Sw. & Rich., F. B. A. ii, 1831, 286.— Bp., List, 1838, 28.— Gray, 



Gen. of B.— WoODH., Sitgr. Rep. 1853, 78.— Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 551.— Coues, Pr. 



Phila. Acad. 1861, 225 (Labrador, breeding).— Cass., ihid. 1866, 412.— Hayd., 



Rep. 1862, 170.— Dai.1. & Baxx., Tr. Chic. Acad, i, 1869, 285 (Alaska).- Mayx., 



Pr. Bost. See. xiv, 1871 (Maine and New Hampshire, breeding). — Sxmv, B. 



Kans. 1872 (Kansas, migratory).- Coues, Key, 1872, 159.— B. B. & R., N. A. B. 



ii, 1874, 20.3, pi. 35, f. 4. 

 (?) Oriolus niger, G.M., i, 1788, 393. 



Scolecophagus niger, Bp.,Con8p. i, 1850, 423. — Cab., Mns. Hein. i, 1851, 195. 

 Turchis hudsonicus, noveboracensis'et labradorius, Gm., i. 1788, 818, 832. 

 " Oriolus Jeucocephalns, et Graeula quiscala var.. Lath." 

 Fendulimis ater, ViEiix., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. 

 " Chalcophanes virescens, Wagl., Syst. Av. App. Oriolus, No. 9." f^Z 



Hob. — Eastern Province of North America. West to Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota ; ;- .«' 

 thence oblit^nely in British America to the Pacific in Alaska. Breeds from Northern "" / 

 New England northward. In winter, generally dispersed over the Middle, Southern, I ( Zi 

 and Western States. . ^ r 



Lieutenant Warren's Expedition. — No. 5322, near Sioux City, Iowa. J?-- ■ 



There are some interesting points in the geographical distribution of^'' ' 

 this species as compared with that of S. cyaiiocephalus. I3uring the^' • 

 breeding season their habitats are. entirely separate, but they overlap 5r^ - 

 during the fall migration, if not also in winter. In tlie East, the Eusty ^/,'- 

 Grackle breeds from Northern Xew England (and perhaps further south V-j x- 

 Digitized by Microsoft® . 



Ji4' 



1 



l,i- 



