230 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus (Linnaeus) 

 Red-winged Blackbird 



Plate 73 



Oriolus phoeniceus Linnaeus. Syst. Nat. 1766. Ed. 12. 1:161 

 Icterus phoeniceus DeKay. Zool. N. Y. 1844. pt 2, p. 141, fig. 47 

 Agelaius phoeniceus phoeniceus A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. 1910. 



p. 233. No. 498 



agelaius, Gr., gregarious; phoeniceus,, Lat. and Gr., deep red, Phoenician red, 

 referring to the male's epaiilets 



Description. Male: Lustrous black; bend of the wing bright deep 

 scarlet, bordered with creamy buff. Female: Considerably smaller, blackish 

 feathers of the back with rusty and bufify edges, giving a rather streaked 

 appearance ; under parts blackish heavily streaked with dull white; the throat 

 and bend of the wing more or less tinged with salmon or reddish. Young 

 males at first like female; the first winter plumage resembling the male, 

 but the red of the wing, much duller and all the feathers broadly margined 

 with rusty and buffy above and buffy or whitish below. 



Length cf 9-5-9-75 inches, 9 7-5-8; extent cf 15-16, 9 12.5; wing 4.7-8; 

 tail 3.7-3.9; bill .93; tarsus 1.12; weight 2.5-3 ounces. 



Distribution. This species inhabits North America east of the plains 

 from Ontario and Quebec to northern Georgia and Louisiana; winters 

 from southern New York and Ohio to the gulf coast. 



In this State the Redwing is a common summer resident of all districts, 

 -even the marshes of Staten Island and Long Island and the edges of Elk 

 lake and the Flowed land near Mt Marcy. A few spend the winter in 

 the southern portion, but the majority are migratory, making their appear- 

 ance in the spring from the 15th of February to the loth of March in the 

 southern portions and from March 5 to 25 in the northern counties. In 

 the fall they disappear from the ist to the 20th of November, sometimes 

 remaining in numbers till the ist of December. 



Haunts and habits. Everyone who has visited the marshes or river- 

 side is familiar with the Red-winged blackbird and with his gorgeous 

 ■epaulets and the spritely " congaree " which he continually utters when 

 perched on the top of the cat-tails or alders or on the neighboring telegraph 

 wire or when flying along with outspread tail over the tops of the sedges. 



