T/te Red-winged Blackbirds 



Authorities. — Mailliard, J., Condor, vol. xvii., 1915, p. 13 (orig. desc); ibid., 

 pp. 228-230 (distribution); Grinnell and Storer, in Rules and Regl.- Yosemite Natl. Park, 

 1920, p. 52 (in Yosemite Valley). 



No. I9f Bicolored Redwing 



A. O. U. No. 499. Agelaius phoeniceus californicus Nelson. 



Description. — Similar to A. p. neutralis, but male usually without, or with 

 relatively small, exposure of ochraceous buff on middle wing coverts, the feathers 

 broadly tipped with black instead (in extreme examples the feathers are black for the 

 distal two-thirds, so that their ochraceous portion is not only completely overlaid by 

 the red lesser coverts, but has a wide "margin of safety" so far as exposure is con- 

 cerned). Adult female: Scarcely different from that of A. p. neutralis. The tra- 

 dition of a darker bird is based on examples of A. tricolor, which have been widely 

 confused with those of this species. Dimensions not conspicuously different in any 

 respect from those of A. p. neutralis, although bills of extreme bicolored examples may 

 average somewhat stouter. 



Remarks. — The "Bicolored Blackbird" was long counted a subspecies of Agelaius 

 gubernator, a form found centrally in the southwestern portion of the Mexican plateau. 

 The resemblance between the males is indeed a striking one, but the females are quite 

 different, the assumption of resemblance having been based in part upon examples of A. 

 tricolor, which is excessively common throughout the region occupied by A. p. californi- 

 cus. It is conceivable that both gubernator and calif orniiis alike derive from ur- 

 phoeniceus, but the hypothesis of a direct line of connection between them is discredited 

 by three factors. In the first place the proportions of gubernator are quite different from 

 those of western phoenicei, while those of californicus follow them closely. The ranges 

 of the two forms are not only discontinuous, but they are separated by a space of a 

 thousand miles, the northern portion of which is closely occupied by connected forms of 

 phoeniceus. And, lastly, and most conclusively, californicus intergrades with the 

 surrounding forms of phoeniceus in almost every conceivable degree. 



Range of A. p. californicus 'wholly contained within California). — Resident in 

 the central portion of California west of the Sierras and roughly tributary to the San 

 Francisco Bay region, north at least to Sonoma County and interiorly to Tehama 

 County, east to western foothills of the Sierras, south coastwise to about Parallel 36, — 

 interiorly, and typically, possibly not further south than Stanislaus County. 



Authorities. — Vigors, Zoology of Beechey's Voyage, 1839, p. 21; Heermann, 

 Rept. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. x., pt. iv., 1859, p. 53 (nest and eggs) ; Bendire, Life Hist. 

 N. Amer. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, pp. 455-456, pi. vi., figs. 16, 17 (habits, nest and eggs); 

 Mailliard, J., Condor, vol. xi., 1909, pp. 127-128 (nesting; food habits); vol. xii., 1910, 

 pp. 63-70, 2 figs, (critical study); Mailliard, J. W., Condor, vol. xii., 1910, pp. 39-41 

 (comparison with tricolor); Beat, Biol. Survey Bull., no. 34, 1910, pp. 56-59 (food). 



SPRING herself being listed as a "winter resident" in California, we 

 are never quite certain when the official season does open. Certainly 

 not, as elsewhere, with the coming of the Redwings. Such as are not 

 already resident in the State, arrive from the North in late autumn, and 

 spend the winter with us. Neither their comings nor their goings are as 

 conspicuous with us as they are in the North; but if in mid-February or 

 early March we come upon a boisterous company of Redwings crowding 



118 



