THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 33 
has been found to eat nearly three times as much grain as the former, 
must be capable of much mischief in localities where it becomes 
superabundant. 
The following table shows the various elements of the food for each 
month of the season: 
Food of the yellow-headed blackbird. 
[NUMBER OF STOMACHS EXAMINED: April, 9; May, 31; June, 14; July, 16; August, 60; September, 5 
October, 3: total, 138.] 
Sep- | Octo- | Aver- 
Food. April. | May. | June. | July. |August. tember.| ber. age. 
SNIMAT: Percent.| Percent.| Percent.| Percent.| Percent.| Percent.| Percent.| Percent. 
Predaceous beetles.......... QO: 8.0 4.1 4.7 QE fscisinst tee eeccene ve 2.8 
Other beetles siete 3.9 12.6 7.8 7.8 OF le cvecrmar O48 5.0 
Caterpillars.......... . 0.1 6.0 44 21.5 ORE te vanies| sates d 4.6 
Grasshoppers ..............--)...2.025 1.0 0.4 32.0 8.0 15.6 24.3) 11.6 
Other insects ................ 2.6 5.3 22.6 6.9 0.8 19.0 10.4 9.7 
<i 
32.9 39.4 72.9 o7 34.6 37.0] 33. 
9.0 DEE Netz alerts Als A |eatpaniverceersl tes sats 9.8 
5.7 3.4 5.8 QNDE ls cyeersievelllonarstarste ns 3.5 
21.9 12.8 lid 4352} | sees s,s 63.0 | 25.6 
30.5 34.0 6.6 36.1 Gdai4 [access Se 2751 
eataa ee 0.7 OS eorceyedae Ti) fac wicncie| 028 
Total vegetable food...) 90.7 | 67.1 60.6 Zl 90.3 65.4 63.0] 66.3 
THE RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 
(Agelaius pheniceus. ) 
The red-winged blackbird (otherwise known as the red-shouldered 
blackbird, swamp blackbird, and American starling), including its 
various races,’ inhabits North America from Nova Scotia and Great 
Slave Lake south to Costa Rica. It breeds throughout its range in 
the United States and Canada. The typical form is replaced at differ- 
ent places in the southern part of the range by the Bahama, Florida, 
and Sonoran redwings, but the differences that separate these various 
subspecies are scarcely appreciable by the casual observer. The bird 
is curiously restricted in its local distribution by the fact that it nests 
as a rule only in the immediate vicinity of water, and preferably 
directly over it. For this reason it is absent from extensive tracts of 
country either in high mountainous regions or in desert or forest 
areas. Nests have occasionally been found in perfectly dry situations 
at a distance from water, but such cases are exceptional. 
The prairies of the Upper Mississippi Valley, with their numerous 
sloughs and ponds, furnish ideal nesting places for redwings, and con- 
sequently this region has become the great breeding ground for the 
1 The different subspecies are not considered separately in this bulletin. 
3074—No. 13 3 
