YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonaparte)

Field characters.—Male slightly larger than Robin; head, neck, and breast bright yellow; small patch on wing white; plumage otherwise dull black. Female smaller than a Robin; body dark brown, not streaked; head, fore neck, and breast dull yellow. Voice: Various harsh and scolding notes, recalling Red-winged Blackbird but distinctly different.

Occurrence.—Uncommon transient. Recorded near Williams Butte, April 27, 1916, and May 11 and 12, 1916, and Yosemite Valley, "about January, 1917." Reported from Dudley, six miles east of Coulterville, in spring.

The Yellow-headed Blackbird belongs to the fields and marshes of the lowlands, hence is not often encountered in the Yosemite section. None was seen by us during our work in the western part of the region, and only three were noted in the vicinity of Mono Lake.

A male bird in full adult plumage was seen near Williams Butte on April 27, 1916, and other individual males were collected on May 11 and 12 of the same year; these latter lacked the white wing patches, and so were probably yearlings. In 1919 there was exhibited in the Park Superintendent's office in Yosemite Valley, a male Yellow-headed Blackbird which was said to have been killed "almost at the door of Sentinel Hotel about January, 1917." It was obviously a stray wanderer from some point on one side or the other of the Sierras.

Mr. Donald D. McLean has told us that Yellow-headed Blackbirds are sometimes seen during the spring months at his home, Dudley, 6 miles east of Coulterville.