NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 21 



purple lustre, under parts with a rich golden purple lustre, most conspicuous 

 on the breast and neck in front ; under tail coverts with green lustre. Shoulders 

 purple, wings and tail with green lustre. 



Total length about 8 to 8} inches, wing 4\ to 4|, tail 3\ to 3 inches. 



Young. General colors "light yellowish and dull brown, much like young 

 Plocei or Xanlhorni. Upper parts dull light brown, plumage edged with dull 

 yellow, under parts pale dull yellow, with longitudinal stripes of pale brown. 

 Bill very strong. 



Ilab. Western South America, Pern, Mexico? Spec, in Mus. Acad., 

 Philadelphia. Probably peculiar to the countries of Western South America, 

 and an entirely respectable species. 



8. Molothrus sericeus (Swainson). 



Scolecophagus sericeus, Swains. Cat. Cy., p. 301, (1838). 



Molothrus brevirostris, Swains. Cat. Cy., p. 305, (1838) ? 



Icterus sericeus, Licht. Verz. Doubl., p. 19, (1823)? 

 Specimens from Bahia, from which locality this bird is commonly brought, 

 and is apparently the common species of Eastern South America. Rather 

 larger than, but difficult to distinguish from, the species immediately preced- 

 ing, (M. purpurascens,) and has the same golden purple lustre on the plumage 

 of the under parts of the body. The bill is straighter, and not so strong, and 

 the second and third quills nearly equal. 



Though commonly brought from Bahia in collections, I have not a sufficient 

 aumber of specimens in adult plumage for a satisfactory examination of th'S 

 bird, though I am inclined to the opinion that it is not quite identical with 

 either of the preceding. Specimens that I regard as M. brevirostris appear to 

 me to be the same as others also from Bahia, which I regard as M. sericeus, 

 probably differing only in age. This seems to be rather the largest species of 

 this group, though, perhaps, little larger than M. seneus or M. purpurascens, and, 

 though my opinion is favorable, I am under the necessity of regarding it as a 

 species of but imperfect respectability. It is certainly, I think, the bird 

 described by Swainson, as above, and probably also by Lichtenstein under the 

 same name. 



4. Cyrtotes. 



(Genus Cyrtotes, Reiehenbach.) 



9. Molothrus maxillaris, (D'Orbigny et Lafresnaye). 



Icterus maxillaris, D'Oib. et Lafres. Mag. Zool., 1838, p. 6. 



D'Orb. Voy. Am. Mer. Ois., pi. 52, fig. 3. 



Two specimens from M. D'Orbigny's collection are in the Academy Museum. 

 This curious bird, in color and general characters, intimately resembles the 

 last four species above given, but also much resembles the birds of the group 

 Lampropsar. Of the species here given as Molothri, it approaches most 

 closely M. bonariensis and M. discolor, and has the lustres of the plumage very 

 similar, but is larger than either, and, in fact, is rather larger and with longer 

 wings than either of the preceding species in this memoir. It is, in my judg- 

 ment, entirely a peculiar bird, and described, entirely judiciously, by the dis- 

 tinguished authors above cited as a distinct species. 



The peculiar character of this bird is the singular lobe on the cutting edge 

 of the upper mandible, as stated by M. D'Orbigny, near the point, and which, 

 if met with in a single specimen, might readily be suspected of being a 

 deformity, as intimated by the greatest of European Ornithologists now living: 

 " rostro deformi?" This suspicion and general view of the case is, however, to 

 me rendered less cogent by the fact that I have before me two of M. D'Orbigny's 

 specimens, and they are like each other with much exactness ! In both the 

 adult specimens, this curious lobe is more strongly developed than as repre- 

 sented in M. D'Orbigny's figure above cited. 



This bird is accurately described by M. D'Orbigny, as above cited, and also 



1866."] 



