NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 13 



I have never printed, I may have expressed verbally and epistolatorially, and 

 beg now to correct, both for myself and others contingently interested. 



The males only of the two species are alike in color, the female of the present 

 species being strictly as described by M. D'Orbigny in Guerin's Magazine, 

 Zool. 1838, p. 5, and previously by Azara and Vieillot; reddish chestnut, 

 with longitudinal central stripes of black on the back and dullish yellow on 

 the under parts of the body. In the Jamaica species {A. nigerrimus) both sexes 

 are st.ted to be black. The present bird is slightly the larger, with the bill 

 rather the thicker and the tarsus longer, but the most decisive and reliable 

 character is that in this species the entire plumage of the body above and 

 below is light ashy at the bases of the feathers, easily seen in raising them, es- 

 pecially on the rump and lower part of the back. On those parts, in fact, the 

 feathers are, almo t throughout their length, light ashy, being only rather 

 narrowly and abruptly tipped with deep black. In A. nigerrimus this is not 

 the case, the feathers being, throughout, much darker and in fact nearly black, 

 widely tipped with deep black. Both birds are strictly of the subgroup 

 Neopsar. 



This bird is accurately described by Azara, Apuntamientos, i. p. 313, 

 (Walckenaer's French edition, iii. p. 190) whose description is copied by Vieillot, 

 Nouv. Diet, xxxiv. p. 552. It is also sufficiently described by D'Orbigny, 

 Guerin's Magazine, Zool. 18C8, Syn. Av. p. 5. The sexes, as given somewhat 

 provisionally by these authors, are so labelled in the fine collection made by 

 Mr. Christopher J. Wood, while attached to Capt. Page's Expedition, which 

 surveyed the Rio La Plata and Rio Parana, which collection is now in the 

 Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. The female, and probably the young 

 male, are entirely different from the male in colors, in which respect this species 

 apparently differs in a singular manner from its near relative, Agelaius or 

 Neopsar nigerrimus, numerous specimens of which, labelled as both males and 

 females, are in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, and are entirely 

 black. One of M. D'Orbigr.y's specimens in the Academy Museum is probably 

 that of a young male, but differing only from the female in having the black 

 stripes of the under parts more numerous and the throat less conspicuously 

 mottled with black. 



This species seems to be of rather wide diffusion, though apparently but in- 

 differently known to naturalists. Specimens in Academy Museum, labelled 

 " Bolivia," from M. D'Orbigny's collection, and others received from Mr. John 

 G. Bell of New York, in " Bogota" collections. Specimens in Capt. Page's 

 La Plata collection are labelled, undoubtedly correctly, by Mr. Wood, " Para- 

 guay." 



The points of distinction between the two closely allied species here men- 

 tioned, and especially the infallible character, as I regard it, to be found in 

 the difference of the colors at the bases of the feathers, I am happy to ac- 

 knowledge were first pointed out to me by Miss Grace Anna Lewis, most favora- 

 bly known, and deservedly so, as a lecturer and teacher of Ornithology and 

 General Natural History. Miss Lewis is one of several accomplished ladies who 

 have most diligently studied in the Library and Museum of this Academy during 

 the present winter, and not only successfully, but have contributed also in 

 the highest degree to the general agreeableness of the similar pursuits of 

 their fellow students of the stronger sex. 



5. Macroagelaius. 



2. Agklaius subalaris, (Boissoneau.) 



Quiscalus subalaris, Boiss. Rev. Zool. 1840, p. 70. 

 Specimens in the Academy Museum labelled " Bogota." Though usually 

 rated as a Quiscalus, this bird, in my opinion, is more properly to be regarded 

 as an Agelaius, though differing from the typical subgroups in having a longer 

 and more Quiscalus-like tail. It is not an uncommon bird in collections from 

 the northern countries of South America. 



1866.] 



