. Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley . a distinguished personage. GENUS XANTHOCEPHALUS. 497. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonap.). Yellow- headed Blackbird. Bill decidedly shorter than head, its depth through base less than halfthe length of the exposed culmen ; culmen straight, flattened ; sexes dif-ferent in size; wing long and pointed ; tarsus nearly one fourth as longas Aving; claws large, lateral ones reaching beyond base of middle male in summer: black except for yellow or orange
. Handbook of birds of the western United States, including the great plains, great basin, Pacific slope, and lower Rio Grande Valley . a distinguished personage. GENUS XANTHOCEPHALUS. 497. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonap.). Yellow- headed Blackbird. Bill decidedly shorter than head, its depth through base less than halfthe length of the exposed culmen ; culmen straight, flattened ; sexes dif-ferent in size; wing long and pointed ; tarsus nearly one fourth as longas Aving; claws large, lateral ones reaching beyond base of middle male in summer: black except for yellow or orange of head, throat,and chest, and white patch on wings. Adult male in winter: similar, butyellow of top of head obscured by brownish tips to feathers. Adultfemale: brownish, throat and chest dull yellowish, breast mixed withwhite. Young male in first ivinter: similar to female, but larger and deepercolored. Male : length (skins) , wing , tail ,bill . Female: length (skins) , wing , tail , bill . Distribution. — Western North America from British Columbia and Hud-. YKLLOW-ilEADEI) HLAcKIURD BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 289 son Bay. south across Mexican tablelands and east to Wisconsin. Indiana,and Texas; easuallv to Ontario and the eastern United States. Nest. — Fastened to tale stems or rushes 10 to 80 inches above thewater of a marsh, made of coarse marsh grasses, tules, reeds, and rushes,woven toj^ether and lined with finer grasses. Eggs: o to ■). from g-rayishto greenish white, profusely and evenly blotched and speckled withbrowns and grays. Fixxl. — Small seeds, such as wild rice, and, in cultivated districts, occa-sionally corn, oats, and Avheat; but mainly insects, especially grasshoppersand locusts, together with their eggs and larv*. From their breeding grounds in the sloughs and tule marshes theyellow-headed blackbirds scatter out and wander over the whole ofthe western plains countr}-, appearing in
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