May 11, 1914 
VVOo\ 
Vol. XXVII, pp. 107-108 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF TIIF. 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 
A NFAV RED-WINGED 
BLACKBIRD 
BASIN. 
FROM THE GREAT 
BY JOSEPH ORINNELL. 
[t^mtribvition from the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology of the riiiversily of California.] 
For a number of years students of birds have found difficulty 
in referring the red-winged blackbird of tlie Great Basin region 
of the western United States to any one of tlic described suli- 
species. Ridgway (Birds N. and Mid. Ainer., part 2, 1902, 
page 340, footnote) includes it under the name AgeUvius phoeni- 
ceus neutralis and remarks as follows: ‘ ‘ Specimens from southern 
California and northern Lower California seem to be somewhat 
different from Great Basin examples, hut I do not venture to sep¬ 
arate them, the series of specimens being scarcely satisfactory.” 
Taylor (IJniv. Calif. Publ. ZooL, vol. 7, 1912, page 382) treats 
of the Red-winged Blacklnrds of Humboldt County, Nevada, 
under the heading: ‘p/loe7^A■(^'es (subspecies indet.).” 
Material has accumulated in the California Museum of Verte¬ 
brate Zoology, until there is now fair basis for a study of the 
situation. There seems abundant justification for naming a 
new race of Agelaius plioeniceus, and this I do as follows: 
Agelaius phoeniceus nevadensis subsp. iiov. 
NEVADA REDWINGED BLACKBIRD 
Type. —Female adult; No. 8800, Univ. Calif. Mus. Vert. Zool.; Qniim 
River Crossing, Humboldt County, Nevada; May 17, 1009; collected l)y 
W. P. Taylor; orig. No. 720. 
Subspecific characters. —In shape of bill and other general characters 
clo.sely similar to A. p. sonoriensis; male scarcely distinguishable, hut 
female consjdcuously darker colored, on account of the great relative 
breadth of black streaking both above and below; in this respect similar 
to female of A. p. caurmus, but bright rusty edgings on back and wings 
replaced by ashy and pale ocliraceons; bill in male of caurimis more 
slender than in either sonoriensis or nevadensis. 
HOT) 
21—Bkoc. Bior. Soc. Wash., Voi.. XXVIJ, 1914. 
