RUSTY BLACKBIRD. 
199 
8 feet from the ground, and form them of a mixture of 
moss and grass. The eggs are 5, of a dark color, spotted 
with dusky. They assemble in great flocks, and retire 
southwardly in September. — Some part of this descrip- 
tion probably applies to the Ferruginous Blackbird, with 
which it may easily be confounded. This species is also 
known to inhabit the West Indies, and South America. 
The prevailing color of this bird is a deep glossy black, with faint 
steel-blue reflections inclining to greenish on the wings and tail. 
The head small, and the bill somewhat acute. The tail about 4 inch- 
es, almost exactly even, but with the outermost pair of feathers a little 
shorter than the rest. The individual I describe appears new moult- 
ed, and on the throat and breast, the feathers, less glossy black than 
above, are very faintly tipt with brownish dirty white ; on the front, 
superciliary ridge, and back of the neck, these tips are dark chestnut, 
and scarcely visible on the latter. The bill, from the opening of the 
mouth, is about 9 lines, black, and a little paler at the base of the 
under mandible. The legs are black, the tarsus full an inch, or as 
long as in the Common Blackbird. 
RUSTY BLACKBIRD. 
( Quiscalus ferrugineus, Bonap. Graculaferruginea , Wilson, iii. p, 
41. pi. 21. fig. 3. [male, in the spring]. Philad Museum. No. 5514.) 
Sp. Charact. — Glossy-black, more or less skirted with ferruginous; 
tail rounded : the length about 9 inches; vertical breadth of the 
bill at base about j of an inch : — Female nearly equal to the male, 
head, neck, and breast ferruginous-brown; the belly and rump 
ash color. 
This species, less frequent than the preceding, is often 
associated with it, or with the Red-winged Troopial or 
the Cow-pen Bird, and, according to the season, they are 
found throughout America, from Hudson’s Bay to Flori- 
da. Early in April, according to Wilson, they pass hastily 
through Pennsylvania, on their return to the north to 
breed. In the month of March he observed them on the 
