YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 



Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus. 



Char. Male : head, neck, and breast yellow ; large patch on wing 

 white; other parts black. Female and young: general color blackish 

 brown ; wings without the white spot ; throat and breast dull yellow. 

 Length 9 to 11 inches. 



Nest. — Of dried grass, firmly woven and fastened to twigs of a bush or 

 stalks of rushes, in a marsh or swampy meadow. 



^.?.^^- — 2-6; grayish white, sometimes with a green tint, irregularly 

 marked with brown; 1.05 X 0.70. 



The Yellow-headed Troopial, though long known as an 

 inhabitant of South America, was only recently added to the 

 fauna of the United States by Major Long's expedition. It 

 was seen in great numbers near the banks of the River Platte, 

 around the villages of the Pawnees, about the middle of May ; 

 and the different sexes were sometimes observed associated in 

 separate flocks, as the breeding season had not yet probably 

 commenced. The range of this fine species is, apparently, 

 from Cayenne, in tropical America, to the banks of the River 

 Missouri, where Mr. Townsend and myself observed examples 

 not far from the settled line of Missouri State. It has been 

 seen by Dr. Richardson, in summer, as far as the 58th par- 

 allel. Its visits in the United States are yet wholly confined to 



