406 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Family ICTERLDAE 47 



DOLICHONYX ORYZIVORUS (Linnaeus) 



BOBOLINK 



Fringilla oryzivora Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, 1758, p. 179 (Cuba). 

 Dolichonyx orizivorus, Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat, vol. 68, 1929, 

 p. 324 (San Juan, specimens). 



Migrant from North America; rare. 



The first record for this species is of one shot on Tortue Island, 

 May 16, 1917, by W. L. Abbott. Abbott writes that this bird was 

 taken from a flock of about one hundred. E. L. Ekman secured 

 specimens in cornfields near San Juan, Dominican Republic, on Sep- 

 tember 21, 1929, collecting five on that date. Ciferri collected two at 

 the same point September 28, 1929. The bobolink nests in the north 

 from British Columbia and Montana to New England and winters 

 from Brazil to Argentina so that it may be expected in Hispaniola 

 only in passage during spring and fall. 



The bobolink ranges from 155 to 185 mm. long, and is plump of 

 body, with short, conical, sparrowlike bill, long tarsi, and sharply 

 pointed tail feathers. In fall and winter dress in which it should 

 be most frequently seen in Hispaniola it is brownish above, con- 

 spicuously streaked with black and buffy, and buffy or yellowish 

 beneath, streaked on sides and flanks with black. The female re- 

 tains this dress throughout the year, but the male in spring becomes 

 a striking bird of jet black plumage with a large patch of buff on the 

 nape, and the scapulars, rump and upper tail-coverts white tinged 

 with gray. 



AGELAIUS HUMERALIS (Vigors) 

 TAWNY-SHOULDEKED BLACKBIRD, MERLE 



Leistes humeralis Vigors, Zool. Journ., vol. 3, November, 1827, p. 442. (Near 

 Havana, Cuba.) 



Agelaius quisqueyensis Danfoeth and Emxen, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 

 vol. 40, December 2, 1927, p. 147 (Artibonite Sloughs, near St. Marc, Haiti). — 

 Danfoeth, Auk, 1929, p. 373 (Artibonite). — Lonnberg, Fauna och Flora, 1929, p. 

 110 (Haiti). 



Agelaius humeralis, Bond, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 80, 1928, 

 pp. 514-515 (Port-de-Paix, specimen). 



Agelaius humeralis quisqueyensis, Moltoni, Att. Soc. Ital. Scienz. Nat., vol. 

 68, 1929, p. 325 (mentioned). 



47 The siffleur of Montbeillard, in Button's Hist. Nat. Ois., vol. 3, 1775, p. 230, recorded 

 in part from " Saint-Doiningue," refers possibly to some species of this family (possibly 

 an oriole), but can not be identified with any of those known from Hispaniola. 



Agelajus guirahuro, Hartlaub, Isis, 1847, p. 610, refers properly to an icterid of south- 

 ern South America and can not be assigned to any species here under consideration. 



