218 
BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
and as soon as they were found the orioles opened them and took out 
the larvae at the rate of two in a minute. I watched the birds and timed 
them.” 
The food materials of twenty-six of these birds examined by the 
author and Mr. Benj. M. Everhart are given below: 
No. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
May 4.1880. 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and blossoms. 
2 
May 10. 1880, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and diptera. 
3 
May 0.1880. 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Vegetable matter, apparently blossoms. 
4 
May 0,1380. 
Chester county, 
Pa., 
Beetles and vegetable matter. 
5 
May 10. 1880. 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Beetles and vegetable matter. 
6 
May 11.18S0. 
Chester county. 
Pa. , 
Caterpillars, fragments of beetles, small green worms and loaves. 
7 
June 0,1880, 
New Castle co. , 
Del., 
Beetles. 
8 
June 11, 1880, 
New Castle co. , 
Del., 
Beetles and vegetable matter (blossoms). 
9 
May 19, 1882, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Larvae, diptera and beetles.* 
10 
May 19,1882, 
Chester county. 
Pa. , 
Larvae, diptera and beetles.* 
11 
May 19.1882. 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and Hies.* 
12 
May 19, 1882, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and flies.* 
13 
May 7.1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Larvae and beetles ^on apple tree). 
14 
May 7,1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and diptera.* 
15 
May 7,1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and diptera.* 
10 
May 7.1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Black beetles. * 
17 
May 13.1883. 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Small black beetles (on apple tree). 
18 
May 13, 1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Small black beetles (on apple tree). 
19 
May 14,1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Larvae, beetles and traces of vegetable matter. * 
20 
May 14,1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Larvae. * 
21 
May 14,1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa. , 
Beetles.* 
22 
May 14, 1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa. , 
Larvae and beetles.* 
23 
May 21,1883, 
Chester county. Pa. , 
Larvae. 
24 
May 21 1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Larvae. 
25 
May 25, 1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa., 
Beetles and larvae. 
26 
June 1, 1883, 
Chester county. 
Pa.. 
Beetles and larvae. 
Genus SCOLECOPHAGUS Swainson. 
Scolecophagus carolinus (Mull.). 
Rusty Blackbird. 
Description. 
Bill shorter than head and rather slender ; legs and feet dark ; iris pale-straw 
color ; light line over eye. 
Male . — General color black and somewhat glossy ; feathers of upper part very 
rusty ; lower parts rusty but lighter. 
Female. — Brownish-slate color, more or less rusty. Length about 9| inches ; ex- 
tent about 15 inches ; female little smaller. 
Habitat . — Eastern North America, west to Alaska and the plains. Breeds from 
northern New England northward. 
The Busty Grackle, the only blackbird occurring regularly in Penn- 
sylvania which does not breed here, can readily be recognized from 
other species by its ferruginous plumage and yellow or light-colored 
eyes. The Busty Blackbirds winter in the southern states, passing 
southward as far as Florida, where I have observed them in February 
and March. When journeying to their breeding grounds, from the 
northern New England states to Labrador, etc., this species, according 
to my observation, migrates singly or in pairs, but never in flocks. 
These birds arrive in Pennsylvania, occasionally, as early as March 1, 
Feeding in hickory trees. 
