16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



tiaries and greater coverts of the wing brownish black, widely tipped and 

 edged with ferrugineous red. Bill black, feet brown. Sexes very similar, 

 though the female is less tinged with gray on the head and back. 



Total length about 8 inches, wing 3f, tail 3^ inches. Female smaller. 



Ilab. Brazil, Paraguay, Buenos Ayres, Southern Brazil, exclusively? 



Having before me two species which to some extent resemble each other, and 

 both of which 1 suspect are known by the names cited above, I have given this 

 short description of the bird, which is apparently that described by both 

 Vieillot and Spix, and figured, rather unsuccessfully, by the latter. The present 

 species seems to inhabit Southern and South-eastern Brazil, and adjacent 

 countries, but the only authentic specimens to which I have access are in Capt. 

 Page's collection, in Smithsonian Museum, and labelled " Buenos Ayres,"' 

 which locality agrees sufficiently with those authors who have described this 

 bird. 



In this species the tail is black, usually with a tinge of brown, and much 

 darker than the back, while in the species next described it is much 

 lighter and exactly of the color sometimes called " hair brown," but little 

 darker than the upper parts of the body. The quills are red on both webs for 

 about two- thirds to three-fourths of their length, with the terminal one-third 

 or one-fourth brownish black. The entire plumage is darker than in the 

 species immediately succeeding. The description and figures of Spix, cited 

 above, seem to be clearly from birds of this species, though perhaps not fully 

 adult. Vieillot describes this species also. I do not regard it as possible that 

 either this bird or the next succeeding is the young or female of any black 

 species, as sometimes suspected by authors. 



3. Dolichonyx fuscipennis, nobis. 



Tail light brown, quills light brown, primaries narrowly edged on their outer 

 webs, secondaries and tertiaries widely edged on their outer webs, with bright 

 ferrugineous red. Lores black, which color extends behind the eye, and be- 

 comes paler. Entire plumage of the head and body light reddish cinereous, 

 with a tinge of grayish olivaceous on the upper parts, much lighter on the 

 under parts, and strongly tinged with dull pale ochre yellowish. Greater 

 coverts of the wings ferrugineous red, with paler edges, which is the color of 

 the external edges of the wings, (but not of the quills, as in the preceding 

 species.) Bill and feet brownish black. 



Total length about 7 inches, wing 3J, tail 3 inches. Female rather smaller. 



Hub. Cearu, N. E. Brazil. Specimens in Museum Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington. 



The bird now described is clearly distinct from that immediately preceding, 

 and is easily distinguished by its lighter and different colors generally, and 

 especially by its light brown tail, and by its quills being light biown also, 

 edged only with red. In the preceding the tail is black or brownish black, 

 and the quills are red on both webs for more than two-thirds of their length, 

 and brownish black at their ends or terminal one-fourth to one-third. 



The only specimens that I have seen of this species are in the collection of 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and are labelled as male and female, and are 

 undoubtedly from Cearii, Northern Brazil. This bird and the immediately pre- 

 ceding D. badius, present some structural characters, which entitle them to be 

 arranged with nearly equal propriety in either Agelaius or in Dolichonyx, but I 

 think not in Molothrus* 



* DOL1CHONTX MELANCHOLICUS, (LinnfCUS.) 



Oriolus melancholicus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 180, (1758.) 



Edwards' Birds, pi. 85. 



Judging from the figure and description of Edwards, I suspect that this is a third species of the 

 same subgroup of Dolichonyx as D. badius and D. fuscipennis, (above described,) and at present 

 unknown to naturalists. It is peculiar in having not only the sides of the head, but the throat 

 dear black, which is not the case in either of the others just mentioned, but otherwise it resem- 

 bles them. It is stated by Kdwaids to be from the " Spanish West Indies," which now properly 

 means those islands that were Spanish in 1743. 



[March, 



