MEADOWLARKS, BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES: BOBOLINK 637 
he could be/ which expressed one’s natural reaction to this gay little 
messenger of spring.” (1923a, pp. 396-397). 
MEADOWLARKS, BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, etc.: Family Icteridae 
The Icteridae, an American family, in the Bobolink and Cowbird 
are closely related to the Fringillidae (Finches and Sparrows), sharing 
with them the character of angulated commissure, that is, cutting 
edges of bill with sharp angles near base. They also have peculiar 
palates adapted to their food habits (Wetmore, 1919a, pp. 190-197), 
and only nine developed primaries, a combination Qf characters that 
distinguishes them from all other North American families. Except 
for the Bobolink and the Cowbirds, whose bills are short and thick, 
their bills are long, acute, unnotched, unbristled, and have a wedge¬ 
like extension dividing the velvety feathers of the forehead. Except 
in arboreal Orioles, the feet are large and strong, fitted for terrestrial 
life, for walking instead of hopping, like most Finches and Sparrows. 
Leaving out the Meadowlarks, in most genera, black, or black and 
yellow or red prevail, and the sexes are strikingly dissimilar. All are 
migratory. Most are strictly monogamous and build elaborate nests, 
but the Cowbirds are polygamous, polyandrous, and build no nests, 
depositing their eggs in the nests of other birds. 
[BOBOLINK: Dolichonyx oryzfvorus (Linnaeus) 
Description. — Male: Length 6.3-7.6 inches, wing 3.7-4, tail 2.6-2.9. Bill 
finch-like; tail feathers with 'pointed tips. Adult male in spring and summer: Black , 
with cream or buffy patch on hind neck and buffy streaking on wings and foreparts of 
■"back; scapulars, lower back , and upper tail coverts grayish white; bill blue-black. 
Adult female: Upperparls olive-buff streaked with black , crown blackish, with buffy 
brown median stripe, nape finely spotted; underparts yellowish or buffy white, sides 
lightly streaked. Adults in fall and immature: Similar to female but huffier and more 
olivaceous throughout and streaking of uppcrparts blacker, i 
Range. —Breeds mainly in Transition Zone from southeastern British Columbia, 
central Saskatchewan, and central Manitoba, Quebec, and Cape Breton Island south 
to New Jersey, Ohio, Illinois, Utah, northwestern Nevada, and northeastern Cali¬ 
fornia (rare); winters in South America to southern Brazil, Bolivia, and Argentina. 
Migrates through eastern Colorado. 
State Records. —There is at present no specific record for the Bobolink in New 
Mexico, but it is a fairly common migrant in Colorado and birds on their spring and 
fall flights through that State must pass very close to the northeast corner of New 
Mexico, while the individual that was taken in spring at Bluff, Utah, had probably 
crossed New Mexico to reach Utah.—W. W. Cooke. 
General Habits. —As there is a possibility of seeing migrating 
Bobolinks in New Mexico in the fall, when the males have lost their 
black and white coats and assumed the yellowish brown, streaked 
“Reedbird” dress of the females, all flocks of yellowish brown, sparrowy- 
* Chapman, F. M., Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, Plate XX, p. 358, 1912. 
