ORCHARD ORIOLE.

285

GENUS ICTERUS BRISSON.

ICTERUS SPURIUS (LINN.).

206. Orchard Oriole. (506)

Male:--Black; lower back, rump, lesser wing coverts, and all under parts from the throat, deep chestnut; a whitish bar across the tips of greater wing coverts; bill and feet, blue-black; tail, graduated. Length, about 7 ; wing, 34; tail, 3. Female-Smaller, plain yellowish-olive above, yellowish below; wings, dusky; tips of the coverts and edges of the inner quills, whitish; known from the female of the other species by its smaller size and very slender bill. Young male:-At first like the female, afterwards showing confused characters of both sexes; in a particular stage it has a black mask and throat.

HAB. United States, west to the Plains, south, in winter, to Panama. Nest, pensile, composed of grass and other stringy materials ingeniously woven together and lined with wool or plant down, rather less in size and not quite so deep in proportion to its width as that of the Baltimore.

Eggs, four to six, bluish-white, spotted and veined with brown.

On the 15th of May, 1865, I shot an immature male of this species in an orchard at Hamilton Beach, which was the first record for Ontario. I did not see or hear of it again till the summer of 1883, when they were observed breeding at different points around the city of Hamilton, but since that year they have not appeared near this place.

Mr. Saunders informs me that they breed regularly and in considerable numbers near London and west of that city, from which we infer that the species enters Ontario around the west end of Lake Erie, and does not come as far east as Hamilton. Most likely it does not at present extend its migrations in Ontario very far from the Lake Erie shore. The notes of the male are loud, clear and delivered with great energy, as he sits perched on the bough of an apple tree, or sails from one tree in the orchard to another. This species would be a desirable acquisition to our garden birds, both on account of his pleasing plumage of black and brown, and because of the havoc he makes among the insect pests which frequent our fruit trees.

I learn from Dr. Macallum that the Orchard Oriole breeds regularly in small numbers along the north shore of Lake Erie, near Dunnville, but it evidently does not proceed far north of our southern boundary. One wanderer, but only one, is reported by Dr. Coues as having appeared at Pembina.

Male-With head and neck all round, and the back, black; rump, upper tail coverts, lesser wing coverts, most of the tail feathers, and fall the under parts from the throat, fiery-orange, but of varying intensity according to age and season; middle tail feathers, black; the middle and greater coverts and inner quills, more or less edged and tipped with white, but the white on the coverts not forming a continuous patch; bill and feet, blue-black. Length, 7-8; tail, 3. Female:-Smaller, and much paler, the black obscured by olive, sometimes entirely wanting. Young:-Entirely without the black on throat and head, otherwise colored nearly like the female.

HAB.-Eastern United States, west nearly to the Rocky Mountains.

Nest, purse shaped, pensile, about six inches deep, composed chiefly of vegetable fibre, with which is often intertwisted rags, paper, thread, twine

RUSTY BLACKBIRD.

287

and other foreign substances, usually suspended from the outer branches of a tree, most frequently an elm, at a height of ten to fifty feet from the ground. Eggs, four to six, white, faintly tinged with blue, when blown, spotted, scrawled and streaked with lilac and brown mostly toward the larger end.

The gay, dashing, flashing Baltimore Oriole seems to court the admiration so generally bestowed on him, and is much more frequently seen among the ornamental trees in our parks and pleasure grounds than in the more retired parts of the country. He arrives from the south with wonderful regularity about the end of the first week in May, after which his clear flute-like notes are heard at all hours of the day till the early part of July, when with his wife and family he retires, probably to some shady region to avoid the extreme heat of summer. At all events they are not seen in Southern Ontario again till the beginning of September, when they pay us a passing visit while on their way to winter-quarters. The species seems to be well distributed in Ontario, for in the report of the "Ottawa Field Naturalists' Club," it is said to be common in that district, arriving about the 10th of May. It is also included in the list of birds observed at Moose Mountain in the North-West by Prof. Macoun.

Dr. Bell has a specimen which was taken at York Factory, but it prefers the west, being abundant throughout Manitoba, and Dr. Coues found it breeding at Pembina on the boundary south of Winnipeg.

GENUS SCOLECOPHAGUS SWAINSON.

SCOLECOPHAGUS CAROLINUS (MÜLL.).

208. Rusty Blackbird. (509)

Male-In summer, lustrous black, the reflections greenish, and not noticeably different on the head; but not ordinarily found in this condition in the United States; in general glossy black, nearly all the feathers skirted with warm brown above and brownish-yellow below, frequently continuous on the fore parts; the male of the first season, like the female, is entirely rustybrown above, the inner quills edged with the same; a pale superciliary stripe; below, mixed rusty and grayish-black, the primaries and tail above, black; bill and feet, black at all times. Length, male, about 9; wing, 44; tail, 34; bill, †: female, smaller.

HAB.-Eastern North America, west to Alaska and the Plains. from Northern New England northward.

Breeds

Nest, a coarse structure, resting on a layer of twigs, composed of grass mixed with mud; well formed inside and lined with fine grass and rootlets, usually placed in alder or similar bushes overhanging the water.

Eggs, four to six, grayish-white marked with brown.

During the last week in April or the first in May, according to the weather, the Rusty Grackles are seen in small flocks hurrying on to their breeding places farther north. Their stay at that time is very short, and the collectors have but little chance of securing a male in adult plumage, spring being the only season when such can be had here, and even then only a few in each flock have acquired their nuptial dress. They may yet be found breeding in Ontario, although, owing to the number of observers being small, the fact (so far as I know) has not yet been recorded. About the end of August, or early in September, they return in flocks of much greater dimensions than those which passed up in the spring, and in company with the Cowbirds and Redwings continue to frequent the plowed fields, cornfields and wet places till the weather gets cold in October, when they all move off to the south and are not seen again till spring.

This species goes farther north than any other of the Blackbirds, for it is found not only throughout Manitoba and the North-West, but is common in Alaska, where Mr. Nelson says: "It arrives in the British fur country, at Great Bear Lake, latitude 65° north, by the 3rd of May, and breeds throughout the northern extreme of the continental land, reaching the farthest limit of the wooded region on the Lower Anderson and Mackenzie Rivers. In Northern Alaska it reaches latitude 70°. On the Behring Sea and Arctic coast of this territory, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River, the bird is a regular, but not numerous, summer resident wherever trees and bushes are found reaching the vicinity of the sea coast." It feeds largely on insects, but is also said to be fond of corn, though it leaves us too early in the spring and arrives too late in the fall to do much damage in Ontario.

In the Auk, Volume II., page 107, Mr. Banks, of St. John, N.B., gives an account of a nest of this species, which he found in a different position from that usually assigned to it.

It was placed in a large spruce, about 28 feet from the ground, and was a coarse, bulky nest, composed of dried vines of the honeysuckle, loosely entwined at the sides and fastened together by a solid mass of mud at the bottom.

There was no attempt at lining of any sort. It contained two eggs and two young birds.

GENUS QUISCALUS VIEILLOT.

SUBGENUS QUISCALUS.

QUISCALUS QUISCULA ÆNEUS (RIDGW.).

209. Bronzed Grackle. (5116)

Metallic tints, rich, deep and uniform; head and neck all round, rich, silky steel-blue, this strictly confined to these portions, and abruptly defined behind, varying in shade from an intense Prussian blue to brassy-greenish, the latter tint always, when present, most apparent on the neck, the head always more violaceous; lores, velvety-black; entire body, above and below, uniform continuous metallic brassy-olive, varying to burnished golden olivaceous-bronze, becoming gradually uniform metallic purplish or purplish-violet on wings and tail, the last more purplish; primaries, violet-black; bill, tarsus and toes, pure black; iris, sulphur-yellow. Length, 12.50 to 13.50; wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.26; tarsus, 1.32; third and fourth quills, longest and equal; first, shorter than fifth; projection of primaries beyond secondaries, 1.28; graduation of the tail, 1.48. (Ridgway.)

HAB. From the Alleghanies and New England north and west to Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains.

Nest, coarse and bulky, composed of twigs and weeds, with a mixture of mud, often placed in a spruce or hemlock tree, sometimes in a bush overhanging the water, and occasionally in a hollow stub or deserted woodpecker's hole.

Eggs, four to six, smoky-blue with irregular dark brown blotches, lines and spots.

The Bronzed Grackle was christened by Mr. Ridgway at the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, in June, 1869. Prior to that date, Dr. Baird had separated one as peculiar to Florida, but all the others were supposed to belong to the species named by Linnæus, Quiscalus quiseula, or Purple Grackle. Mr. Ridgway, on comparing a large number of specimens from different points, found the group to contain two well-defined sub-species, and his decision has now been generally adopted. The original Purple Grackle is the most southern bird of the three, its habitat being given

as

"Atlantic States from Florida to Long Island," while our present form is said to extend from the Alleghanies and New England, north and west to Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains. Since giving my attention to this subject, I have made a point of examining all available mounted Crow Blackbirds in barber shops, country taverns, etc., and find that all belong to the Bronzed division.

It is quite possible that a few of the others may yet be found along our southern border, but unquestionably the Crow Blackbird