248 YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. 



NAMES: Red-eyed Cowbird, Bronzed Cowbird. 



SCIBNTIPIC NAMES: Psarocolinas leneus Wagler (1829). Molothrus robustus Cab. (1851). CALLO- 

 THRUS ROBUSTUS Ridgw. (1887). 



DESCRIPTION: Adult male: Uniform glossy black, with bronzy lustre; lesser and middle wing-coverts and 

 rump, glossed violet; wings in general, upper tail-coverts and tail, glossy blue-black, changing to 

 greenish; iris, bright red. Size, 9.00 to 9.50 inches. Adult female: Brownish-gray. About one inch 

 smaller. 



YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD, 



Xanthocephalus xahthocephalus Jordan. 



Plate XXIX. Fig. 3. 



^HE Blackbirds belong to the most characteristic features of our American landscapes. 

 Wherever they occur, be it in their breeding haunts, on their way to and from 

 the South or in their winter-quarters, they impart the landscape with the conspicuous- 

 ness and peculiarity of their presence. Being eminently gregarious when not breeding, 

 they move about in large black swarms. Though possessed of a special fondness for low 

 marshy or watery places, we find them scouring the open cultivated country in quest of 

 food, being frequently seen in fields, pastures, meadows, and orchards. The swarms of 

 Blackbirds are familiar to every "country boy, and their coming and departing is quite 

 an event in rural life. The prevailing color of these birds is a deep black, glossed with 

 bronze, violet, purple, blue, green, and gold. All the Crackles, as well as the Blue-headed 

 and Rusty Blackbirds, are entirely black, while in the Bobolink, the Red-wings, and the 

 Yellow-headed Blackbirds the lustrous black contrasts well with their other colors of 

 bright red, yellow, and white. When arriving in spring they are exceedingly noisy and 

 their characteristic call-note, a loud teck, is uttered by almost every individual of the 

 swarm. Throughout the season, from their arrival in spring until they assemble again 

 in swarms after moulting time, these peculiar sounds are heard always and every- 

 where. With the exception of the Cowbird, each species utters a few pleasant song- 

 like notes. 



One of the most beautifiil and conspicuous birds in the marshes of the low rich 

 prairies of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and thence westward to California, is 

 the Yellow-headed Blackbird or Yellowhead. Being found in great abundance in 

 one locality and not at all in another, it is a familiar bird in some places, while entirely 

 unknown in others. Generally it occurs in the flat, moist prairies where extensive 

 marshes, overgrown with luxuriant rushes and sedges, are found. While the Red-winged 

 Blackbird is contented with small swamps in wooded and cultivated districts, the 

 Yellow -headed Blackbird is only met with in places particularly adapted to its wants. 

 It is at all times a gregarious bird and usually breeds in large colonies, one nest being 

 found in close proximity to another. The smallest swamp offers all necessities of life to 

 the Redwing, but for the sociable Yellowhead only the largest marshes offer an induce- 

 ment for colonization. It has always been found in such places and, indeed, only in the 



