70 BIRDS OF Lp PLATA 
of the Troupials, like the European Starling, have a 
glossed metallic plumage, and in a majority of 
species there is some brilliant colour—scarlet, purple, 
orange, and yellow. The whole family numbers 
about 130, and of these fifteen or twenty are found 
in Argentina. Among these are the three species of 
the genus Molothrus which I describe. These three, 
in their shape and hard conical bills, outwardly 
resemble Tanagers and Finches rather than Starlings. 
I was familiar with all of them from childhood, and 
as I spent a good deal of time in watching them and 
succeeded in discovering some interesting facts about 
their singular breeding habits, I have devoted more 
space to this group than to any other one in this 
volume. 
The species here described, the commonest in 
southern Argentina, is the Tordo comun of Azara, 
and is usually called Tordo or Pajaro negro (black- 
bird) by the natives, and Blackbird by the English- 
speaking Argentines. A more suitable name is 
Argentine Cow-bird, given to it by some ornitho- 
logical writers, Cow-bird being the vernacular name 
of the closely allied North American species, Molo- 
thrus pecoris. 
This Cow-bird is widely distributed in South 
America, and is common throughout the Argentine 
country, including Patagonia, as far south as Chupat. 
In Buenos Ayres it is very numerous, especially in 
cultivated districts where there are plantations of 
trees. The male is clothed in a glossy plumage of 
