A Synopsis of the Birds of North America

by John James Audubon

GENUS III. AGELAIUS, Swains. MARSH-BLACKBIRD.

Bill shorter than the head, stout, straight, conical, tapering to an acute point; upper mandible with the dorsal line straight, slightly convex at the base, the ridge flattened toward the base, where it forms a short tapering process on the forehead, the sides rounded, the edges inflected, the tip a little depressed; lower mandible with the angle short and wide, the sides convex at the base, toward the end rounded, the edges involute, the tip acute; the gape-line ascending at the base, afterwards direct. Nostrils basal, oval, with a small operculum. Head ovate, of moderate size; neck short; body moderately stout. Feet of ordinary length, rather stout; tarsus compressed, with seven anterior scutella; toes rather large, the first much stronger, the outer a little shorter than the inner, and adherent at the base. Claws long, little arched, compressed, laterally grooved, very acute. Plumage soft and blended, glossy in the males. Wings of moderate length, with the outer four quills nearly equal. Tail rather long, rounded. Roof of the upper mandible with three longitudinal ridges; tongue tapering to a horny, flattened, slightly emarginate tip; œsophagus wide, considerably dilated about the middle; stomach roundish, muscular; intestine short and of moderate width; cœca very small, cloaca oblong.

213. 1. Agelaius xanthocephalus, Bonap. Saffron-headed Marsh-Blackbird.

Plate CCCLXXXVIII. Fig. 2. Male. Fig. 3. Female. Fig. 4. Young.

Male with the head, upper part of hind neck, sides of the neck, its fore part, and a portion of the breast, orange-yellow, the throat paler; feathers along the base of the bill, loral space, a band below the eye, and a narrower one above it, black; the rest of the plumage glossy black, excepting two bands on the outer part of the wing, formed by some of the smaller coverts, and the primary coverts, which are white. Female much smaller, of a uniform chocolate-brown, with the edges of the feathers paler, the feathers at the base of the upper mandible, a band over the eye, and the fore part of the neck light yellow, the throat dull white, and the feathers on the middle of the breast margined with white toward the end. Young similar to the female, but without yellow on the fore neck.

Male, 9; wing, 5¹⁰/₁₂.

Western Plains, California, and Fur Countries. Abundant. Migratory.

Yellow-headed Troopial, Icterus icterocephalus, Bonap. Amer. Orn. v. i. p. 27.

Icterus xanthocephalus, Bonap. Syn. p. 52.

Agelaius xanthocephalus, Saffron-headed Maize-Bird, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 281.

Yellow-headed Troopial, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 176.

Yellow-headed Troopial, Icterus xanthocephalus, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. v. p. 6.

214. 2. Agelaius tricolor, Aud. Red-and-white-shouldered Marsh-Blackbird.