Male with the head and neck sooty-brown, the body black, glossed with green, the fore part of the back with blue. Female considerably smaller, greyish-brown, the lower parts lighter. Young with the upper parts greyish-brown, the quills and tail darker; wing-coverts and secondary quills narrowly edged with light brown, primaries with whitish; lower parts dull yellowish-white, the sides marked with a series of dark brown pointed spots. _Male_, 7, 11-1/2. Dispersed from Texas northward to Lat. 68°, and throughout the United States. Great numbers winter in the Southern States. Cow Bunting, Emberiza pecoris, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. ii. p. 145. Icterus pecoris, Bonap. Syn. p. 53. Molothrus pecoris, Cow-pen or Cuckoo Bunt, Swains. & Rich. F. Bor. Amer. v. ii. p. 277. Cow Troopial, or Cow Blackbird, Icterus pecoris, Nutt. Man. v. i. p. 178. Cow-pen Bird, Icterus pecoris, Aud. Orn. Biog. v. i. p. 493; v. v. p. 233, 490. 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.