458 ICTERIDA. 
obliterate all grounds for separation. As regards its distribution, S. magna probably 
occurs in suitable places over the greater part of North, Central, and Northern South 
America, and probably few open grassy meadows and savannas are without its presence ; 
as these are scattered at short intervals throughout the whole of the wide area indi- 
cated above, no great gaps occur in its range. As our list of localities shows, in 
Mexico and Central America S. magna must be a very common species: we met with 
it ourselves on the’ plains near Duefias, where some pairs certainly remain to breed ; 
this was at an elevation of nearly 5000 feet. It also occurs in the savannas of the 
department of Peten, which are less than 1000 feet above the sea. In North America 
it is partially migratory, at least in some portions of the country; in Guatemala we 
observed it to be more abundant in the winter months, but this may be from the 
habit the bird has of collecting in small flocks during that season. The nest of 
this species is always placed on the ground, and usually sheltered in a thick tuft of 
grass, to which a covered passage of withered grass is built. The eggs are white, 
freckled and dotted with irregular dark spots of reddish brown, which are either 
generally distributed over the whole surface or collected about the larger end. 
LEISTES. 
Leistes, Vigors, Zool. Journ. ii. p. 191 (1826) ; Scl. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 348. 
Leistes is a southern genus containing only two closely allied species, one of which 
just enters our fauna in the State of Panama, the genus itself being represented over 
the greater part of South America, as far south as the Argentine Republic. The bill of 
L. guianensis has the mesorhinium slightly elevated and just perceptibly flattened, the 
nostril is at the lower extremity of the nasal fossa, and above it is a distinct tumid 
membranous operculum, much as in the genus Stwrnella, with which the general style 
_ of the plumage shows some points of analogy; the bill, however, is comparatively much 
shorter and stouter, the tarsi weaker, and the middle secondaries less developed than in 
that genus. The wings are short and rounded, the second, third, and fourth are the 
longest quills, the first slightly exceeds the fifth ; the tail is short and the rectrices acute. 
The longest secondaries are considerably longer than the shortest primaries, and there 
is considerable diversity in the coloration of the sexes. 
Mr. Sclater places Leistes with the Ageleine, but we are confident it is best associated 
with the Sturnelline. 
1. Leistes guianensis. 
Oriolus guianensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 162°. 
Leistes guianensis, Salv. P. Z. 8. 1870, p. 191°; Ibis, 1885, p. 218°; Tacz. Orn. Pér. ii. p. 427°; 
Scl. Ibis, 1884, p. 21°; Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 348°. 
Tanagra militaris, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 316". 
Leistes militaris, Cass. Proc. Ac. Phil. 1866, p. 14°. 
