a 
356 BIRDS—ICTERIDA. 
Abundant summer resident from March 1st to November. Breeds. 
The Red-winged or Swamp Blackbird frequents swamps and marshes, 
both of great and small extent. In the spring they appear in small 
flocks, but in the fall collect together sometimes by thousands. When 
perched on the low trees or high weeds of a marsh, it presents an attrac- 
tive appearance, but its notes are, to say the least, unmusical, being a 
singular combination of clear and guttural sounds frequently repeated, 
as if he was intent on learning to sing, but failed at every effort. 
The nest of the Red-winged Blackbird is usually placed in the low 
willows of a swamp, and frequently considerable numbers breed together. 
It is built chiefly of hempen fibres of plants, with strips of the leaves and 
outer covering of the stems of cat-tails. Usually it is placed in an up- 
right fork, or firmly attached to several upright twigs. Sometimes it is 
placed on the ground. The eggs are of a light bluish color, very variable, 
lined and blotched with purplish and black. Their average measurement 
is one inch by three-fourths of an inch. 
GENUS XANTHOCEPHALUS. Bonaparte. 
Bill about twice as long as high, its outlines nearly straight. Claws all very long, 
much curved, the inner the longest, reaching beyond middle of middle claw. Taii nar- 
row, nearly even, the outer web scarcely widening to theend. Wings long, much longer 
than the tail; first quill longest. 
XANTHOCEPHALUS ICTEROCEPHALUS (Bp.) Bd. 
Wellow=-headed Blackbird. \ 
Xanthocephalus icterocephalus, CouES, Birds of N. W., 1874, 189 (probable).—WHxaTON, 
Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 567 ; Reprint, 1875, 7 
Icterus icterocephalus, BONAPARTE, Am. Orn., i, 1835, 27. 
Xanthocephalus icterocephalus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am.,, 1858, 531. 
Male black, whole head (except lores), neck, had upper breast yellow, aad sometimes 
yellowish feathers on the belly and legs; a large white patch on the wing, formed by 
the primary and a few of the outer secondary coverts. Female and young brownish- 
black, with little or no white on the wing, the yellow restricted or obscured. Female, 
much smaller than the male, about 94.° Length, 10-11; wing, 54; tail, 44. 
Habitat, Western North America; north to the daiunten a and Red River; east 
regularly to lowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, casually to Greenland, Massachusetts, Penn- 
sylvania, and Forida; south to Mexico. 
Accidental. My only authority for inserting this species here is Mr. 
W.R. Limpert, a competent ornithologist, who is familiar with this 
species in the West. He informs me that in the summer of 1878, a pair 
of these birds made their appearance in a low meadow, a few miles south 
o Groveport, in this county, where they probably bred. 
In its habits this species resembles the preceding, being highly gre- | 
