THE STAELING. 429 



Several attempts have been made to introduce this sp(M>ies into the United 

 States, but until recently none have been permanently successful. 



Mr. Frank M. Chai)nian, of tlie American Museum of Natural History in 

 Central Park, New York City, writes me as follows on this sul)ject: 



"The last introduction of the Starling- by Mr. Eugene Schiefflin has api)ar- 

 ently been successful. The birds were li))erated in Central Park, but the majority 

 have left this and spread over the more northern i)art of the city. One pair 

 l)red mider the eaves of this nuiseum in the summer of 1893, and this year two 

 pairs are breeding here, while still another lias established itself in the roof of 

 an apartment house close by. ^Ir. C. B. Isham, an assistant in the ornithological 

 department, tells me that no less than ten i)airs are passing the summer at 

 Kingsbridge, near Spuyten Duyvel, and that he knew where five pairs nested 

 there last year. The}' apparently raise two broods in a season and have become 

 pretty well established here. They are resident, or nearly so, and as they have 

 already experienced one of the most severe winters of recent years, ir will not 

 be the fault of the climate if they do not steadily increase in numbers." 



An ;ittemi)t to introduce this species near Portland, Oregon, has apparently 

 failed, the birds liberated there having disappeared. 



From four to seven eggs are laid to a se^t. The eggs vary in shape tVoni 

 ovate to elongate ovate; the shell is rather coarsely granulated and varies con- 

 siderably in color, ranging from a pale greenish-blue to \)n\e bluish-white. 



The average measurement of forty specimens in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 29.4G by 21.34 millimetres, or 1.16 by 0.84 inches; 

 the largest egg measui-es 31.7") l)y 22.10 millimetres, or 1.25 by 0.S7 inches; the 

 smallest, 2G.G7 l)y 19.30 millimetres, or 1.05 by 0.7(; inches. None of these 

 eggs, are figured. 



Family ICTERID.E. Blackbirds, Orioles, etc. 

 i6g. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linn.kus). 



BOBOLINK. 



Friiigilla oryzirora Linn^us, Systema Naturae, ed. 10, I, 175S, 179. 

 Dolichonyx- onjzivorm Swainson, Zoological Journal, III, 1827, 35]. 



(B 39'J, O 210, E 257, C 312, U 49-1.) 



GeorRAPHICAL RANGE: North America; north in the Dominion of Canada near the 

 Atlantic coast to about latitude 47°, in the provinces of Quebec and Ontario to about 

 latitude 45°, in Manitoba and Assiniboia to about latitude 52° N., and thence westward 

 to southern I'.ritish Columbia. In the United 8tates west to Utah and eastern Nevada. 

 South in winter to the West India Islands and South America. 



The breeding range of tlie Bobolink, known also as " Skunk Blackbird" in 

 the Northern States, as " Ortolan" and " Reed})ird" on the Atlantic coast in the fall, 

 as "Meadow-wink" in some of our Middle States, as "Kicebird" and "Maybird" 

 in South Carolina, (ieorgia, and Louisiana, and as " Butterbird" in Jamaica, 



