BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 
289 
son Bay, south across Mexican tablelands and east to Wisconsin, Indiana, 
and Texas; casually to Ontario and the eastern United States. 
Nest. — Fastened to tule stems or rushes 10 to 30 inches above the 
water of a marsh, made of coarse marsh grasses, tules, reeds, and rushes, 
woven together and lined with finer grasses. Eggs: 3 to 5, from grayish 
to greenish white, profusely and evenly blotched and speckled with 
browns and grays. 
Food. — Small seeds, such as wild rice, and, in cultivated districts, occa¬ 
sionally corn, oats, and wheat; but mainly insects, especially grasshoppers 
and locusts, together with their eggs and larva?. 
From their breeding grounds in the sloughs and tule marshes the 
yellow-headed blackbirds scatter out and wander over the whole of 
the western plains country, appearing in flocks with grackles, red¬ 
wings, or cowbirds in the characteristic hordes of the fall migration, 
or in flocks by themselves in fields and meadows, along the road¬ 
sides, often in barnyards and corrals, and sometimes in city streets, 
flocks with pompous, yellow-caped males strutting about among 
the dull-colored females and young, talking in harsh, guttural tones. 
Noisy at all times, they are doubly so on the breeding grounds, 
where they try to sing, and their hoarse voices come up from the 
tule borders like the croaking of frogs and creaking of unoiled gates. 
As the young are leaving the nests in July, it is not unusual to 
find flocks of old males away in the hills by themselves, taking a 
vacation after their arduous duties; but usually the fall flocks are 
made up of both sexes and young. Vernon Bailey. 
GENUS AGELAIUS. 
General Characters. — Bill shorter than head, stout at base, deeper 
than broad, high and flattened on forehead, broadly parting the feathers, 
rapidly tapering to acute point; wings pointed, tail even or rounded; 
claws small, lateral ones scarcely reaching to base of middle one; sexes 
different in size. 
KEY TO ADULT MALES. 
1. Wing with middle coverts black at tips . . . californicus, p. 291. 
1'. Wing with middle coverts buffy, brownish, or white at tips. 
2. Smaller. 
3. Females lighter, buffy tints prevailing on upper parts. Southern 
Arizona and New Mexico. sonoriensis, p. 290. 
3'. Females darker, buffy tints not prevailing on upper parts. 
4. Winter females with little if any rusty on upper parts. Great 
Basin district to southern California . . neutralis, p. 291. 
4'. Winter females with rusty on upper parts. Oregon and Califor¬ 
nia, west of Cascades and Sierra Nevada . tricolor, p. 292. 
2'. Larger. 
3. Bill relatively shorter and thicker. Manitoba to Mexico. 
fortis, p. 291. 
3'. Bill relatively longer and more slender. 
4. Wings longer. Northwest coast district caurinus, p. 291. 
4'. Wings shorter. Eastern United States to base of Rocky Moun¬ 
tains .phceniceus, p. 290. 
