188 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 237 part i 



"Late dates of spring departure are: Costa Rica — El General, 

 April 3, 1939, April 23, 1940; Bebedero (Carriker), April 27. Guate- 

 mala — passim, May 4; Uaxactun, El Peten, April 28, 1931 (Van 

 Tyne)." 



Carriker (1910), in writing of the dickcissel in winter in Costa 

 Rica, states: "An abundant winter visitor throughout almost the 

 whole of Costa Rica wherever cultivated or grass-lands are to be 

 found. They usually arrive about the first week in September and 

 some linger on till late in April before leaving. They prefer the 

 plateau region to the lower and hotter coastal plains, where food is 

 also less plentiful. During their entire stay in the south they always 

 remain in flocks of from five to six up to as many as fifty at times. 

 The rice-fields in the region west of San Jose (from Turrucares to 

 San Mateo) are favorite localities for them." 



As stated earlier in this account, an increasingly large number of 

 dickcissels now spend the winter in the north, especially in north- 

 eastern United States and Canada. Here they are usually seen as 

 lone individuals or at most three to five, and are frequently associated 

 with house sparrows, tree sparrows, and other sparrows at feeding 

 stations. They are usually silent except for a characteristic cack, 

 but at times may utter snatches of song. Dickcissels now also 

 winter occasionally in the breeding areas of the Middle West. 



Distribution 



Range. — South-central Canada to Colombia, Venezuela, and British 

 and French Guiana. 



Breeding range. — The dickcissel breeds (sporadically in eastern part 

 of range) from eastern Montana (Miles City), northwestern North 

 Dakota (Cnarlson), southern Manitoba (Oak Lake, Winnipeg), 

 northw^estern and central Minnesota (Fosston, Milaca), northern 

 Wisconsin (Alden, Kelley Brook), central Michigan (Grand Traverse, 

 Charlevoix, and Otsego counties), and southern Ontario (Sarnia, St. 

 Thomas) south to central Colorado (Canyon City), western Oklahoma 

 (Kenton), Texas (except the Avestern Panhandle), southern Louisiana 

 (Lake Charles, Diamond), central Mississippi, and central Alabama 

 (Greensboro, Barachias), and locally in the piedmont of Georgia 

 (Atlanta, Augusta), South Carolina (Columbia, York), and central 

 Maryland (Clear Spring, Dickerson). Formerly from Massachusetts 

 south through the Atlantic lowlands to South Carolina. 



Winter range. — Winters from Michodcan (Apatzingdn) south 

 through Central America to central Colombia (Villavicencio), southern 

 Venezuela (Cano Cataniapo), British Guiana (Abary River), and 

 French Guiana; regularly in small numbers north to Arkansas, Mary- 



