BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 261 



c. Head aud neck all around seal-brown .... 495. Cowbird 6 . 



d. Nape buffy, rump whitish 49-t. Bobolink S . 



m. Under parts grayish, slate-color, chestnut, or buf^. 



A. Under parts grayish or slate-oolor. 



a. Under parts grayish ; bill flnchlike ; wing under 4-00. 



495. CowBiED 9 . 



b. Under parts and upper parts slate-color, the feathera sometimes 

 tipped with brownish 509. Eusty Blackbird 9 . 



B. Under parta buify or chestnut. 



a. Under parts buffy, generally with a few black streaks. 



494. Bobolink 9 . 



b. Under parts buffy, without black streaks ; tail about 5-00. 



513. Boat-tailed Grackle 9 . 



c. Under parts chestnut; throat black. 



500. Orchard Oriole ( S ad.). 

 rv. Under parts black and white, or black tipped or mar- 

 gined with rusty. 



a. Under parts streaked black and white, or black tipped with white ; 



shoulder generally red or reddish. 



498. Eed-winoed Blackbird ( 9 and im.). 

 4986. Florida Eedwing ( 9 and im.). 



b. Upper parts and under parts tipped with rui5ty. 



509. KusTY Blackbird (im.). 



c. Nape buffy, rump whitish 494. Bobolink i . 



494. Solichonyx oryzivorus .(Zinn.). Bobolink ; Eeedbird ; 

 Eicebird. Ad. i , breeding plumage. — Top and sides of the head and under 

 parts black, the feathers more or less tipped with a narrow whitish or cream- 

 buff fringe, which wears off as the season advances; back of the neck with a 

 large yellowish cream-buft' patch ; middle of back generally streaked with 

 cream-buff; scapulars, lower back, and upper tail-coverts soiled grayish 

 white ; wings and tail black ; tail-feathers with pointed tips ; bill blue-black. 

 Ad. 9 . — Upper parts olive-buff, streaked with black ; crown blackish, with a 

 central stripe of olive-buff; nape finely spotted and back broadly streaked 

 with black ; wings and tail brownish fuscous ; tail-feathers -^x^h pointed tips ; 

 under parts yellowish or buffy white. Ad. in fall and Im. — Similar to 

 female, but huffier and more olivaceous throughout. L., 7'25 ; W., 3'76 ; T., 

 2-73 ; B., -55. 



Remarks. — The young and adults in fall plumage are known as Eeed- 

 birds. Adults acquire this plumage by a complete molt after the breeding 

 season. The breeding plumage is regained by a complete molt in the spring, 

 and not, as has been supposed, by a change in the color of the feathers with- 

 out molting. Freshly plumaged males have the black veiled by yellow tips 

 to the feathers ; these gradually wear off, and by June have almost entirely 

 disappeared (of. Chapman, Auk, x, 1893, p. 309). 



Range. — Breeds from southern New Jersey northward to Nova Scotia, 

 westward to Utah and northern Montana ; leaves the United States by way of 

 Florida, and winters in South America. 



