flocks do considerable
damage to grain fields in the fall. They also do a great amount of good
at other seasons in the destruction of injurious insects and weed seed.
They breed from April in the southern parts of their range to May and
June in the northern, making their nests of grasses, woven and twisted
together and placing them in bushes in swamps or over water, and
sometimes on the ground in clumps of grass. Their eggs are from three to
five in number, bluish white boldly spotted, clouded or lined with
blackish brown and purplish. Size 1.00 x .70. The nests and eggs of the
numerous sub-species are all precisely the same as those of this bird,
so we will but enumerate the varieties and their range. To identify
these varieties other than by their ranges will require micrometer
calipers and the services of the men who separated them.

498a. SONORA RED-WING. _Agelaius phoeniceus sonoriensis._

Range.--A slightly larger variety found in southern United States.

498b. BAHAMA RED-WING. _Agelaius phoeniceus bryanti._

Range.--Bahamas and southern Florida.

This species has a slightly longer bill.

498c. FLORIDA RED-WING. _Agelaius phoeniceus floridanus._

Range.--Florida and Gulf coast.

A smaller species with a longer bill.

498d. THICK-BILLED RED-WING. _Agelaius phoeniceus fortis._

Range.--Breeds in the interior of British America; in winter south
through the Plains to southwestern United States.

498e. SAN DIEGO RED-WING. _Agelaius Phoeniceus neutralis._

Range.--Great Basin between the Rockies and Sierra Nevadas, from British
Columbia to Mexico, wintering in the southern parts of its range.

498f. NORTHWESTERN RED-WING. _Agelaius phoeniceus caurinus._

Range.--Pacific coast from California to British Columbia.

[Illustration 318: Red-winged Blackbird.]
[Illustration: Bluish white.]
[Illustration left hand margin.]

Page 317

499. Bicolored Red-wing. _Agelaius gubernator californicus._

Range.--Pacific coast, west of the Sierra Nevadas, from Washington south
to Lower California.

The males of this species are distinguished from those of the Red-wings
by the absence of light margins to the orange red shoulders. They are
fairly abundant in their restricted localities, building their nests in
swamps about ponds and streams. The nests are like those of the
Red-wings, and the eggs are similar and with the same great variations
in markings, but average a trifle smaller; size .95 x .67.