Their eggs vary greatly in size; the largest measures 1.08 inches by .82 of an inch, the smallest .90 by .65. They average about an inch in length and .77 of an inch in breadth. They are oval in shape, have a light-bluish ground, and are marbled, lined, and blotched with markings of light and dark purple and black. These markings are almost wholly about the larger end, and are very varying. Agelaius phœniceus, var. gubernator, BON. CRIMSON-SHOULDERED BLACKBIRD. _Psarocolius gubernator_, WAGLER, Isis, 1832, iv, 281. _Agelaius gubernator_, BON. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 430.—AUD. Syn. 1839, 141.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 29, pl. ccxv.—NEWBERRY, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 86.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 529.—HEERM. X, S, 53 (nest).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 263. _Icterus_ (_Zanthornus_) _gubernator_, NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 187. SP. CHAR. Bill rather shorter than the head, without any longitudinal sulci, but with faint traces of transverse ones at the base of the lower jaw. Tail rounded. First quill nearly equal to the fourth. _Male._ Throughout of a lustrous velvety-black, with a greenish reflection. The lesser coverts rich crimson; the middle coverts brownish-yellow at the base, but the exposed portion black. Wing, 5.00; tail, 3.90; culmen, .90; tarsus, 1.10. _Female._ Nearly uniform dark slaty-brown; an indistinct superciliary stripe, an indication of a maxillary stripe, and blended streaks on chin and throat delicate pale peach-blossom pink, this on the jugulum interrupted by dusky streaks running in longitudinal series; lesser wing-coverts tinged with dark wine-red. Wings with just appreciable paler edges to the feathers. Wing, 4.20; tail, 3.20. HAB. Pacific Province of United States, and Western Mexico, to Colima; Western Nevada (RIDGWAY). ? Xalapa (SCLATER, 1859, 365). In the female and all the immature stages, the dusky beneath is largely in excess of the light streaks; the superciliary light stripe is badly defined, and there is no trace of a median light stripe on the crown. These characters distinguish this race from _phœniceus_; while the rounded instead of square tail, and brown instead of pure white border to middle wing-coverts, distinguish it from corresponding stages of _tricolor_. HABITS. The Crimson-shouldered Blackbird was first met with by Mr. Townsend, on the Columbia River, where two specimens were obtained, which were described by Mr. Audubon, in his Synopsis, in 1839. No information in regard to its habits, distribution, or nesting, was obtained by either Mr. Townsend or by his companion, Mr. Nuttall.