CASSIDIX.—AMBLYCERCUS. 445 
p. 279°; 1879, p. 510°; Salv. P. Z. 8S. 1870, p. 191”; Ibis, 1885, p. 219"; Salv. & Godm. 
Ibis, 1879, p. 201”; 1880, p. 123"; Tacz. Orn. Per. ii. p. 435“. 
Cassicus ater, Vieill. N. Dict. d’Hist. Nat. v. p. 363”. 
Cassidix ater, Pelz. Orn. Bras. p. 201°. 
Cassidiz mexicanus, Less. Traité d’Orn. i. p. 4337"; Cass. Pr. Ac. Phil. 1866, p. 416. 
Scaphidura crassirostris, Sw. An. in Menag. p. 301”. 
Cassidix crassirostris?, Moore, P. Z. S. 1859, p. 57”. 
Atro-violaceus, colli plumis elongatis, expansis; rostro et pedibus nigris. Long. tota 13:5, ale 7°5, caude 6:0, 
rostri a rictu 1°5, tarsi 18. 
Q mari similis, sed minor et minus nitida. (Descr. maris et femine ex Choctum, Guatemala. Mus. nostr.) 
Hab. Mexico”, Orizaba®; Guaremata, Choctum (0. S. & F. D. G5); Honpuras, 
Chilomo (Leyland ®); Nicaragua, Blewfields River (Wickham 8); Panama, Chitra, 
Calobre, Calovevora (Arcé1°), Lion Hill (M‘Zeannan’),—Sourn AMERICA, 
Colombia ® to South Brazil 1°19 and Paraguay 15, Amazons valley 1°, Guiana ! 11. 
Cassin, when writing his ‘Studies of Icteride,’ attempted to separate Cassidix 
oryzivora into a number of species, using for them several of the names previously 
proposed by older authors, and supplementing them with some of his own. Mr. Sclater 
in his recent examination of this question confessed his inability to recognize more 
than one species; nor are we able to do more. Cassidix oryzivora, therefore, to us is 
a species of very wide range, with certain trifling points of variation to be expected in 
a bird so extensively distributed. 
This species is an inhabitant of the tropical forests wherever it is found. We know 
little of it in Mexico, but there is a skin in the Sclater collection in the British Museum 
said to have come from Orizaba, and it is more than probable that it is to C. oryzivora 
that Sumichrast refers as another Quiscalus in the hot region with plumage remarkable 
for the brilliancy of its reflections of violet and purple *. In Guatemala it is by no 
means a common bird, as we only once met with it at Choctum, a small flock frequenting 
the edge of the clearing in which the hamlet is situated; they were noisy, gregarious 
birds, but we did not observe any of their breeding-arrangements. Leyland says they 
frequent cornfields near Omoa in great numbers®. In the more southern parts of 
Central America it apparently becomes more common, judging from the number of skins 
sent us, but we have no notes of its habits. In Colombia Salmon found it in several 
places in the State of Antioquia®; he sent home two of the eggs, which are quite 
white, and thus unlike the usual type of Icterine birds. The iris in life is white. 
B. Nares operculo corneo obtecte. 
AMBLYCERCUS. 
Amblycercus, Cabanis, Mus. Hein. i. p. 190 (1851); Scl. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 326. 
Two rather closely allied species constitute this genus, one of which, A. holosericeus, 
* Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 553. 
