XANTHOCEPEALUS ICTEROCEPHALUS. 
137 
distinguish one from another. These nests were all placed in slender saplings which bent 
with every breeze, hence their peculiar form. But what is more singular, is the fact that 
when the birds built in the low shrubs which were so stiff that they could not wave much, 
the nests were often of the same form as those taken from trees. Indeed one of the deep¬ 
est that I ever obtained, I found in the midst of a barberry bush where there was no need 
of building such an elaborate structure. This certainly looks as if the birds labored with¬ 
out reasoning sufficiently, or they would not make themselves unnecessary work. It is 
extremely probable, however, that habits caused by surrounding circumstances are acquired 
slowly and when once fixed become difficult to eradicate, being even inherited by the 
succeeding generations. 
June first I found the Red-wings building on the floating islands in Lake Umbagog, 
evidently sitting on their eggs which were in a somewhat advanced state of incubation. 
Thus it will be seen that there is but little over six weeks difference in time of nesting 
between the birds found in the most Southern portion of the United States and those that 
occur in the more Northern, which is quite short when we consider the extremes in climate, 
there being almost perpetual summer on the Florida Keys, while the ice and snow linger 
in upper New England until the first of May. 
Although the Red-winged Blackbirds appear in New England in early March, when 
the snow is still in the valleys and on the northern slopes, they leave when the first frosts 
have whitened the meadows. Then young and old accumulate in vast flocks and move 
southward. They remain for a short time in Pennsylvania but soon migrate, seeming to 
prefer the salt marshes of the coast at this season of the year. As winter advances they 
retreat inland. 
GENUS IV. XANTHOCEPHALUS. THE YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRDS. 
Gen. Ch. Bill, pointed, broad at lip, a little shorter than the head. Upper mandible, nearly straight. Winys, longer 
than the tail which is a little rounded. Sternum, not stout, quite similar inform to that of Agelceus, excepting that the cor¬ 
acoids are somewhat shorter. Size, large. Stomach, muscular. 
Males of this genus are black in color, with yellow heads and with no white markings on the wings. The females are 
smaller, and duller in color, and they also lack the white markings. 
XANTHOCEPHALUS ICTEROCEPHALUS. 
YeUow-headed Blackbird. 
Xanthocephahis icierocepkalus, Baird, Birds N. A., 1858, 531. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Cii. Form, robust. Size, large. Feet, large and stout. Tongue, rather thin and horny. Sternum, as given 
above. 
Color. Adult male. Greater portion of body, glossy black. Head, excepting band at base of bill, lores, and space 
around eye which are black, neck, upper breast coming down into a point, and ventral spot, yellow. Greater wing coverts, 
white, black at tips. Bill and feet, black. 
Adult female. Uniform sooty brown, with the chin and breast yellow but paler than in the male. There are traces of 
yellow on the sides and top of the head, and superciliary lines of the same color. No white on the wings. Bill, brown. 
Feet, black. 
Young male. Similar to the female, but has white on the wings as in the adult, and the colors are somewhat paler, es¬ 
pecially the yellow. 
Young female. Differs from the adult in having superciliary lines of whitish extending down to the nape, streaks of 
whitish on the breast, and indications of a median line of the same on the head. There are but few traces of yellow on the 
breast. 
BIRDS OF FLORIDA. 
18 
