The Black-headed Grosbeaks 



bursting verdure; but he is most at home in second-growth thickets and 

 swampy tangles. In either case, he sings freely, a rich, rolling, continuous 

 warble, which is among the finest of woodland notes. The song is most 

 nearly comparable to that of the Scarlet Tanager, but it is to be distin- 

 guished by its rounder quality, and the entire absence of phrasing. When 

 singing to his mate, the bird sometimes stands on tiptoe with excitement, 

 and makes the thickets vibrate with long-drawn melody. Sometimes, 

 especially if you are known to be watching near, the music is interrupted 

 by the harsh nasal thkimp or kimp of distrust and warning." 



No. 74 



Black-headed Grosbeak 



A. O. U. No. 596, part. Hedymeles melanocephalus melanocephalus 



(Swainson). 



Synonym. — Rocky Mountain Black-headed Grosbeak. 



Description. — Adult male in summer: Head above and on sides, and narrowly 

 across chin, glossy black, area of black occasionally invaded by a supra-auricular 

 stripe of orange-tawny; a cervical ring, sides of neck, throat, breast, and sides, rump, 

 and interrupted stripes connecting rump and cervix, orange-tawny (antique brown), 

 paling on flanks posteriorly to buckthorn brown; a touch or wash of the lighter shade 

 also on crissum, which is otherwise white; abdomen narrowly white, middle of breast, 

 axillars, and lining of wings pure lemon-yellow; remaining upperparts black, inter- 

 rupted, as aforesaid, on back by tawny, and on wings by broad white tips of median 

 coverts, narrower white tips of greater coverts and secondaries; basal portion of remiges, 

 nearly half on primaries, white; the 6th, 7th, and 8th primaries (reckoned from within) 

 sharply edged with white on the distal portion; rectrices black, the two outer pairs 

 broadly tipped and the 3rd pair touched with white on inner web; tibiae black tipped 

 with white. Bill dark horn-color, lightening below; feet dark brown. Adult female: 

 Very different; pattern of male preserved only in yellow of axillars and wing-linings, 

 with touches of yellow on breast;. in general, above blackish, streaked with white; 

 below fulvous, streaked sharply and narrowly with blackish; pileum blackish, separated 

 by a coronal stripe of white sharply flecked by black; lores and superciliary broadly 

 white; back black, broadly edged with whitish or fulvous; white spotting of wings much 

 restricted; the spots on tail lacking; underparts chiefly whitish, clearest on chin, throat 

 (or else on sides of throat only), and abdomen; elsewhere more or less suffused with 

 pale ochraceous, most intensely on breast, and sharply streaked with dusky. Im- 

 mature birds resemble the adult female, but the ochraceous element is stronger both 

 above and below, and the lesser wing-coverts are extensively edged with yellow. 

 Length of adult males about 201.6 (7.94); wing 100 (3.94); tail 80 (3.15); bill, length 

 !7-5 (-69), depth at base 15 (.59); tarsus 24 (.945). Females scarcely smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — The rich orange-tawny throat and underparts of male, 

 with black head and mingled black and white and tawny of remaining upperparts, 

 distinctive; the yellow of the wing-linings is especially rewarding as well as distinctive. 



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