The Tricolored Redwing 



above. Length about 228.6 (9.00). Av. of males: wing 121 (4.76); tail 88 (3.46); 

 bill 23.4 (.92); tarsus 29.7 (1.17). Av. of females: wing 106.7 (4-20); tail 75.4 (2.97); 

 bill 20.1 (.79); tarsus 26.4 (1.04). 



Remarks. — The occurrence of this closely related but perfectly distinct type of 

 Agelaius in a field closely occupied by the more plastic and wide-spread phoeniceus, 

 offers a pretty problem to the student of geographical distribution. On the whole, 

 I think the presence of the buff element on the wing-coverts of the adult male in autumn 

 affords us the best clue to the bird's phylogenetic history. As is commonly believed, 

 autumnal plumages, when distinct from the breeding plumage, mark a partial reversion, 

 a return to the more primitive or generalized form of the species. That the male 

 tricolor, therefore, should exhibit in the fall a character which marks the utmost, or 

 vernal, achievement of phoeniceus, indicates that the spring white of tricolor is an ad- 

 vance upon the primitive Agelaius type. Tricolor, that is, has evolved further in this 

 direction. 



If this conclusion is a correct one, we may assume that tricolor was the pioneer 

 upon the Californian field. Coming at a much earlier day from the Mexican home of 

 the race, it became thoroughly established, and geneodynamically static, within its 

 chosen area. A succeeding wave of Agelaii, viz., phoeniceus, has since swept the 

 continent, nearly to the Arctic zone; but it found tricolor stubbornly intrenched. As a 

 consequence, it has partly swept around the domain of tricolor, and partly invaded it, 

 so that we now have the phenomenon of two closely related members of the same 

 genus breeding in the same swamp. And with this explanation the notably primitive 

 behavior characters of tricolor agree. 



Recognition Marks. — Towhee to robin size; red-and- white epaulets of male 

 distinctive. Females notably darker than those of A. phoeniceus. Closely gregarious 

 at all seasons. Notes quite different from those of A. phoeniceus. 



Nesting. — In dense and often extended colonies. Nest: a stout basket of coarse 

 grasses and pliant weeds, strengthened by a thin matrix of leaves laid in wet, and lined 

 with coarse round grasses; lashed to stalks of narrow-leafed cattail (Typha angustifolia). 

 Eggs: 4; pale niagara green (called pale "blue"), or pale olive-buff, sharply and sparingly 

 spotted or short-scrawled, chiefly at larger end, by brownish black (See text below). 

 Av. size (one each of forty sets) 24.1 x 17 (.95 x .67). Extreme examples: 30.8 x 18 

 (1. 21 x .71), and 18.5 x 12.9 (.73 x .51). Season: May or early June; one brood. 



General Range. — "Pacific Coast from valleys of northwestern Oregon (west of 

 Cascade Range) south through California (west of Sierra Nevada) to northern Lower 

 California" (A. O. U.). 



Distribution in California. — Resident in central and southern California 

 west of the Sierras; locally abundant in the Great Interior Valley, and in the San 

 Diegan district, north, interiorly, to Shasta County, east to Lake Tahoe (where it has 

 bred — Barlow), west to coast, southerly. 



Authorities. — Audubon (Icterus tricolor). Ornithological Biog., vol. v., 1839, 

 pp. 1-5 (original description from Santa Barbara, Calif.); Heermann, Journ. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila., ser. 2, vol. ii., 1853, p. 268 (nesting habits); Henshaw, Rept. Orn. Wheeler 

 Surv., 1876, pp. 249-250 (nesting habits) ; Bendire, Life Hist. N. Amer. Birds, vol. ii.. 

 456-458, pi. vi., figs. 18, 19 (habits, nests and eggs); Mailliard, J. W., Condor, vol. 

 xii., 1910, pp. 31-41 (critical); Mailliard, J., Condor, vol. xvi., 1914, pp. 204-207 (nest- 

 ing colony). 



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