a 
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. 35D 
over, it is a very little while afterward when the whole band goes trooping after food 
in the nearest cattle-yard or pasture#? 
During July these birds disappear for a season, and where they go and 
what they do, has never been certainly discovered. I am somewhat of 
the opinion, from having seen them in great numbers during that 
month in the mountains of Pennsylvania, that like many)jothers with- 
out family cares, they go to the mountains to rusticate and keep cool. 
In September and October they reappear on their way south, often in 
immense close flocks. 
The eggs of the Cow-bird are white, more or less thickly spotted or 
dotted with ashy-brown; they are generally of a rounded oval form, nearly 
equal in size at both ends. Usually a single egg is deposited, but as 
many as five have been found in a nest. How many eggs the female 
lays in a season would be an interesting but difficult fact to ascertain. 
Genus AGELAUS. - Vieillot. 
Bill, with culmen parting the feathers of the forehead, as long as the head, shorter 
than tarsus. Wings pointed, reaching to end of lower tail-coverts, second primary 
longest.. Tail rounded. 
AGELAUS PH@NicEUS (L.) V. 
WMed-winged Blackbird. 
Icterus phoniceus, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1338, 162.—RmaD, Fam. Visitor, iii, 1853, 
319; Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395, 
eis pheniceus, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 366; Reprint, 1861, 8.— LANG- 
DON, Revised List, Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 176; Reprint, 10. 
Ageleus pheniceus, WHEATON, Food of Birds, ete., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 567; Reprint, 
1875, 7—LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 9.—Jonxs and SHULZE, Illus. Nests and 
Eggs of Ohio Birds, Plate 5, Part 2, 1879, | | 
Red-winged Blackbird, BALLOU, Field and Forest, iii, 1878, 136. 
Oriolus phoeniceus, LINNZZUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 161. 
Agelaius phoniceus, VIEILLOT, ‘‘ Analyse, 1816.” 
Icterus phoniceus, ‘‘DAUDIN,” LIcHT., Verz., 1823. 
Agelceus phoeniceus, COUES, Key, 1872. 
Male uniform lustrous black; lesser wing-coverts scarlet, broadly bordered by brown- 
ish-yellow or brownish-white, the middle row of coverts being entirely of this color, and 
sometimes the greater row likewise are mostly similar, producing a patch on the wing 
nearly as large as the red one. Occasionally there are traces of red on the edge of the 
wing and below. The female smaller, under 8; everywhere streaked; above blackish- 
brown, with pale streaks, inclining on the head to form median and superciliary stripes; 
below whitish, with very many sharp dusky streaks; the sides of the head, throat, and 
the bend of the wing, tinged with reddish or fulvous. The yeung male at first like the 
female, but larger; apt to have a general buffy or fulvous suffasion, and bright bay 
 edgings of the feathers of the back, wings, and tail, and soon showing black patches. 
Length, 8-9; wing, 44-5; tail, 34-4. 
Habitat, Temperate North America. 
