This large handsome Blackbird with bright yellow head and breast is very abundant in some parts of the west, where they nest in large colonies in sloughs and marshes, being especially abundant in the Dakotas and Manitoba. The nests are made of strips of rushes, skillfully woven together and attached to upright cane near the surface of the water. They lay from four to six eggs having a grayish white ground color, finely specked and spotted with shades of brown and gray; size 1.00 × .70. [Illustration 317: White.] [Illustration: Cowbird.] [Illustration: Light blue-green.] [Illustration: Yellow-headed Blackbird.] [Illustration: Grayish white.] [Illustration: right hand margin.] Page 316 498. RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD. _Agelaius phœniceus phœniceus._ Range.--North America east of the Rockies and from the southern British Provinces southward to the Gulf; winter in southern United States. These birds are familiar to every frequenter of the country, in their range; too familiar to many, for the enormous 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 × .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 phœniceus sonoriensis._ Range.--A slightly larger variety found in southern United States. 498b. BAHAMA RED-WING. _Agelaius phœniceus bryanti._ Range.--Bahamas and southern Florida. This species has a slightly longer bill. 498c. FLORIDA RED-WING. _Agelaius phœniceus floridanus._ Range.--Florida and Gulf coast. A smaller species with a longer bill. 498d. THICK-BILLED RED-WING. _Agelaius phœniceus 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 Phœniceus 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 phœniceus 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._