SIURUS. 145. 
This is one of the commonest of the winter visitants to Mexico and Central America, 
being found throughout the country at that season from Mazatlan to Chiriqui. It does 
not, however, appear to reach the southern continent in its southward flight; nor have « 
we even seen specimens from the line of railway in the State of Panama. Near 
Mazatlan Grayson only met with it between November and April in the densest woods, 
where it was shy, solitary, and silent 1°. Further south its habits are much of this 
character; but in Costa Rica it has been noticed as early as August’. In Cuba, 
Dr. Gundlach gives the end of August and the beginning of September as the time of 
its arrival, and states that it remains in the island in great numbers till the following 
April®. It is a bird of solitary habits, and frequents woods at elevations ranging from 
nearly the sea-level to 5000 feet, living mostly on or near the ground, where it seeks its. 
food consisting chiefly of insects, seeds, and small shells. 
In North America, though generally a bird of the Eastern Province, in high latitudes. 
it spreads across the continent, and has been found in Alaska’. It usually arrives 
from its winter quarters about the beginning of May, and remains far into September. 
During this time it breeds. Its nest is a domed structure, placed on the ground in a 
bank under the shelter of a projecting root or in a thick clump of bushes. It is made 
externally of wood, mosses, lichens, and dry leaves, with a few stems and broken frag- 
ments of plants. The entrance is strongly built of stout twigs; its upper portion is 
a strong framework of fine twigs, roots, stems, mosses, dry plants, &c.; and the lining is 
of finer materials of the same kind®. ‘The song of the male during the mating-season 
is described as being of excellent quality ®. 
The eggs are stated to vary considerably ; the normal colour is creamy white, marked 
chiefly at the larger end with mingled dots and blotches of red, reddish brown, lilac, 
dark purple, and ferruginous, these spots in some cases being collected in a crown round 
the large end of the egg °. 
Dr. Coues © has taken great pains to collect the references to the literature of this. 
species. 
B. Vertex dorso concolor, supercilia alba. 
/ 
2. Siurus noveboracensis.” 
Motacilla nevia, Bodd. Tabl. Pl. Enl. p. 47* (ex D’Aub. Pl. Enl. 752. f. 1). 
Siurus nevius, Coues, B. Col. Vall. i. p. 299”. 
Motacilla noveboracensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 958°. 
Siurus noveboracensis, Scl. & Salv. Ibis, 1859, p. 10*; Scl. P. Z. S. 1859, p. 363°. 
Sciurus noveboracensis, Lawr. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. vii. p. 322°; ix. pp. 947, 200°; Bull. U. S. Nat. 
Mus. no. 4, p. 14°; Baird, Rev. Am. B. i. p. 215; Frantzius, J. f. Orn. 1869, p. 293"; 
Sumichrast, Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p.547°; Baird, Brew. & Ridgw. N. Am. B. i. 283%; 
Gundl. Orn. Cub. p. 68", 
BIOL. CENT.-AMER., Aves, Vol. 1, February 1881. 19 
