PASSERES — QUISC ALID^E MOLOTHRUS. 1 43 



GENUS MOLOTHRUS. Swainson. 



Bill short, stout, conical, moderately compressed. Upper mandible with the dorsal line 

 slightly covex ; tip rather acute. Nostrils small, elliptical ; the sinus at the base of the 

 bill sharp and shallow. Wings rather long, pointed : the second quill longest ; the first 

 almost equal. Tail moderate ; its feathers broad and rounded. 



THE COW BUNTING. 



MOLOTHRUS PECORIS. 

 PLATE XXI. FIG. 45. 



(STATE COLLECTION.) 



Fringilla pecoris, Gmelth. Brown-headed Oriole, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Vol. 2, p. 259? Id. lb. Vol. 2, p, 371. 



Stwnus stercorarius. BartrAM, p. 291. 



Emberiza pecoris. Wilson, Am. Orn. Vol. 2, p. 145, pi. 18, figs. 1, 2, 3. 



Icterus ( Emberizoides) pecoris. Bonaparte, Ann. Lye. N. Y. Vol. 2, p. 53. 



Icterus id, Temminck. Acdubon, folio, pi. 99. Nuttall, Man. Orn. Vol.1, p. 178. F. ambigua, Id. (young?) 



Molothrus pecoris, Sw. Richardson, F. B. A. Vol. 2, p. 277. Peabody, Birds of Mass. p. 283. Kirtland, 



' Zool. Ohio, p. 162. Audubon, B. of A. Vol. 4, p. 16, pi. 212. 

 M. pecoris, Cowpen-bird. Giraud, Birds of Long island, p. 139. 



Characteristics. Glossy black ; head and neck deep glossy brown. Female, sooty brown. 

 Young, similar, but with arrow-headed spots on its breast. Length, 7 

 inches. 



Description. Bill stout ; the ridge of the upper mandible flattened : edges sinuous. The 

 three first primaries subequal ; the remainder successively graduated. Tail nearly even, 

 slightly rounded, 1-0-1 '4 longer than the tips of the closed wings. 



Color. The black glossed with green, purplish near its junction with the deep glossy drab 

 of the neck. Female, smaller than the male, of a uniform dull greyish brown ; beneath a 

 shade lighter, and obscurely streaked with pale brown. Young, mottled with black and 

 brown : above greyish brown ; the tail and primaries darker ; the latter faintly edged with 

 white : dusky pointed spots in series on the sides. 



Length, 6'5-7*0. Spread of wings, 11*0 -11 "5. 



The Cow Bunting, Cow Blackbird, or Cowpen-bird, derives its various names from the 

 circumstance of its following cattle in the fields, searching in their droppings for undigested 

 grains and intestinal worms. Like the Cuckoo of Europe, it deposits its eggs in the nests 

 of other birds to be hatched, and, according to the testimony of some writers, never builds a 

 nest of its own : the eggs pale greenish, with olive brown points and confluent blotches, more 

 numerous at the larger end. This species appears in this State about the beginning of April, 

 and leaves us for the South in October. Its food consists of grubs and the hard-shelled in- 

 sects, maize and other seeds. It has been observed from Mexico to the 68th parallel. 



