322 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 95 



and evening flight of little flocks past our camp. By the end of 

 the month they were divided in pairs. On March 17 I saw a female 

 carrying nesting material to a crotch 40 feet from the ground in a 

 tree in the village, and on March 23 a pair was seen at a nest in a 

 palm top at Laguna del Tular. About the houses they were most 

 familiar, especially near the arroyo. While they ranged through- 

 out the fields to feed they were most frequent near water. The 

 natives called them picho. 



DIVES DIVES DIVES (Lichtenstein) 



Icterus Dives Lichtenstein, Preis-Verzeichniss mexicanischer Vogel, 1830, p. 

 1 (Mexico). 



This fairly common species is represented by skins taken at Tres 

 Zapotes on March 24 and 31, 1939, and March 3 and 4 and April 6, 

 1940. Carriker shot one at Tlacotalpam on February 16, 1940. 



Sumichrast's blackbird, while resembling many other blackbirds in 

 its uniform dark coloration, is more like an oriole in habits, as it 

 ranges mainly in trees and thickets and seldom comes down on the 

 ground. It was found in pairs and small flocks, usually in wood- 

 land, but in March when corn was ripe I saw them occasionally flying 

 over the fields. One pair ranged among scattered palms in an area 

 of abandoned milpas near camp, where often in the heat of the day 

 I saw them resting on shaded perches, panting with open bills. 

 Near the village I found pairs at the border of open groves, and they 

 sometimes came into dead trees at the edge of woodland. As they 

 moved about the tail was jerked up and down constantly in a decid- 

 edly greater arc of movement than in other blackbirds. The song is 

 musical and pleasing. 



The contention of Hellmayr 70 that this bird of Central America 

 is conspecific with Dives warszewiczi\rA D. kalinowskii of Ecuador 

 and Peru is one that may be accepted but one that should be scruti- 

 nized to determine whether it is entirely correct. The first species 

 mentioned is so much smaller in all dimensions that its differences are 

 easily evident as a series of birds is laid out for examination. It is 

 obviously a dwarf member of the group and may possibly be specifi- 

 cally separable. The disparity in size for example is almost as great 

 as that existing between an ordinary rusty blackbird (Euphagus 

 carolinus) and a grackle {Quiscalus). Dives kalinowskii is some- 

 what larger than the northern bird. It is not impossible that when the 

 three are better known all may prove to be distinct species. 



TO Publ. Field Mus, Nat. Hist., zool. ser., vol. 13, Apr. 12, 1937, pp. 96-99. 



