140 
AGELAINiE. AGELAIUS. 
line straight, slightly convex at the base, the ridge flatten- 
ed toward the base, where it forms a short tapering process 
on the forehead, the sides rounded, the edges inflected, the 
tip a little depressed ; lower mandible with the angle short 
and wide, the sides convex at the base, toward ‘the end 
rounded, the edges involute, the tip acute ; the gape-line 
ascending at the base, afterwards direct. Nostrils basal, 
oval, with a small operculum. Head ovate, of moderate 
size ; neck short ; body moderately stout. Feet of ordi- 
nary length, rather stout ; tarsus compressed, with seven 
anterior scutella ; toes rather large, the first much stronger, 
the outer a little shorter than the inner, and adherent at 
the base. Claws long, little arched, compressed, laterally 
grooved, very acute. Plumage soft and blended, glossy in 
the males. Wings of moderate length, with the outer four 
quills nearly equal. Tail rather long, rounded. Roof of 
the upper mandible with three longitudinal ridges ; tongue 
tapering to a horny, flattened, slightly emarginate tip ; oeso- 
phagus wide, considerably dilated about the middle ; stomach 
roundish, muscular ; intestine short and of moderate width ; 
coeca very small, cloaca oblong, 
213. 1. Agelaius xanthocephalus, Bonap. Saffron-headed 
Marsh-Blackbird. 
Plate CCCLXXXVIII. Fig. 2. Male. Fig. 3. Female* Fig. 4. Young. 
Male with the head, upper part of hind neck, sides of the neck, its 
fore part, and a portion of the breast, orange-yellow, the throat paler ; 
feathers along the base of the bill, loral space, a band below the eye, 
and a narrower one above it, black ; the rest of the plumage glossy 
black, excepting two bands on the outer part of the wing, formed by 
some of the smaller coverts, and the primary coverts, which are white. 
Female much smaller, of a uniform chocolate-brown, with the edges 
of the feathers paler, the feathers at the base of the upper mandible, 
a band over the eye, and the fore part of the neck light yellow, the 
throat dull white, and the feathers on the middle of the breast mar- 
gined with white toward the end. Young similar to the female, but 
without yellow on the fore neck. 
Male, 9; wing, 
