BIRDS—ICTERIDAE—AGELAIUS GUBERNATOR. 
529 
AGELAIUS GUBERNATOR, Bon. 
Red-shouldered Blackbird. 
Psarocolius gubernator, Wagler, Tsis, 1832, iv, 281. 
JIgelaius gubernator, Bon. List, 1838.— Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 430.— Aud. Syn. 1839, 141.— Ib. Birds Amer. IV, 1842, 
29 ; pi. 215.— Newberry, P. R. R. Rep. VI, iv, 1857, 86. 
Icterus (Zanthornus) gubernator, Nuttall, Man. I, 2d ed. 1840, 187. 
Sp. Ch. —Bill rather shorter than the head, without any longitudinal sulci, but with faint traces of transverse ones at the 
base of the lower jaw. Tail rounded. First quill nearly equal to the fourth. 
Male. —Throughout of a lustrous velvety black, with a greenish reflection. The shoulders and lesser coverts rich crimson ; 
the middle coverts brownish yellow at the base, but the exposed portion black. 
Female. —Dusky, varied with paler. Length, 9 ; wing, 5 ; tail, 3.80. 
Hab. —Pacific coast of the United States. Colorado river? 
The bill of this species is rather small, being scarcely as long as the head. It is about half 
as high at the base as long, and exhibits no sulci on the upper mandible. At the base of the 
lower jaw are some sulci or wrinkles perpendicular to the commissure. The second, third, and 
fourth quills are nearly equal; the first between tbe fourth and fifth. The tail is considerably 
rounded ; the lateral feather about .30 of an inch shortest. The feet are rather slender. 
A female is throughout of a dark brownish black, scarcely varied at all, except on the chin 
and throat, which are reddish white streaked with brown. There is a rather distinct super¬ 
ciliary stripe of reddish white. The shoulder feathers are edged with darkish rose color. 
I find it exceedingly difficult to distinguish satisfactorily this species from the A. phoeniceus 
in certain stages of plumage. The bill is a little smaller, with a tendency to transverse 
sulcations on the lower mandible; the proportions are much the same ; stouter than in tricolor. 
The tail is almost as much rounded ; much more so than in A. tricolor. The red on the 
shoulder is of much the same brilliant crimson, but it is confined to the lesser coverts ; the 
bases of the middle row of coverts are brownish yellow, but the exposed portion is black instead 
of being brownish yellow as in phoeniceus, or white as in tricolor. Sometimes, however, by the 
elongation of the yellowish basal portion, some of this color shows beyond the red as in 
phoeniceus. Wherever, however, these middle coverts were all tipped with black, even if 
not very broadly, 1 have referred the species to gubernator , as in a large series of phoeniceus I 
have seen but one or two with a black tip to even some of these coverts. 
The females are scarcely to be distinguished from those of A. tricolor , except possibly by the 
more rounded tail, and stouter, shorter bill. It was at one time supposed that the female of 
gubernator was the darker, but there are three specimens before me, (4598—4600,) which, in 
the amount of light color beneath, approximate to A. phoeniceus. It is quite possible that there 
may be another species mixed in with the supposed tricolor and gubernator , and distinct from 
phoeniceus , but the specimens before me are not sufficient to decide the question. 
The transverse striae or wrinkles at the base of the lower jaw, and the absence of any on the 
upper, appear in most cases to be quite characteristic and appreciable, (in the adult males at 
least,) as compared with the longitudinal wrinkles on both mandibles of A. phoeniceus and 
tricolor. 
The females of both A. tricolor and gubernator appear to lack the trace of a median stripe on 
the crown seen in phoeniceus. 
June 25, 1858. 
G7 b 
