THE COW BLACKBIRD. 339 



assertions must appear odd to the inhabitants of the Eastern 

 States, to whom the change of plumage in these birds is familiar, 

 as it passes immediately under their eye ; and also to those who, 

 like myself, have kept them in cages, and witnessed their gradual 

 change of color." 



About the first week in August, the old and young birds 

 collect in large flocks ; and, early in September, they all 

 depart for the South. 



MOLOTHRUS, SWAINSON. 



Molothrus, SWAINSON, F. Bor. Am., II. (1831) 277. (Type Fringitta pecoris, Gm.) 

 Bill short, stout, about two-thirds the length of head; the commissure straight; 

 ctilmen and gonys slightly curved, convex, the former broad, rounded, convex, and 

 running back on the head in a point ; lateral toes nearly equal, reaching the base of 

 the middle one, which is shorter than the tarsus; claws rather small; tail nearly 

 even; wings long, pointed, the first quill longest. 



MOLOTHRUS PECORIS. Swainson. 

 The Cow Blackbird; Cowbird. 



Fringitta pecoris, Gmelin. Syst. Nat., I. (1788) 910. 

 Emberiza pecoris, Wilson. Am. Orn., II. (1810) 145. 



Icterus pecoris, Bonaparte. Obs. Wils. (1824), No. 88. Aud. Orn. Biog., I. (1831) 

 493; V. (1839) 233, 490. 



Icterus (emberizoides] pecoris, Nuttall. Man., I. (1832) 178; 2d ed., 190. 

 Molothrus pecoris, Swainson. F. Bor. Am., II. (1831) 277. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Second quill longest; first scarcely shorter; tail nearly even, or very slightly 

 rounded; male with the head, neck, and anterior half of the breast, light chocolate- 

 brown, rather lighter above; rest of body lustrous-black, with a violet-purple gloss, 

 next to the brown, of steel-blue on the back, and of green elsewhere. Female, light 

 olivaceous-brown all over, lighter on the head and beneath ; bill and feet black. 



The young bird of the year is brown above, brownish- white beneath; the throat 

 immaculate; a maxillary stripe and obscure streaks thickl}" crowded across the 

 whole breast and sides ; there is a faint indication of a pale superciliary stripe ; 

 the feathers of the upper parts are all margined with paler ; there are also indications 

 of the light bands on the wings; these markings are all obscure, but perfectly appre- 

 ciable, and their existence in adult birds may be considered as embryonic, and show- 

 ing an inferiority in degree to the species with the under parts perfectly plain. 



Length, eight inches ; wing, four and forty-two one-hundredths inches ; tail, three 

 and forty one-hundredths inches. 



Hob. United States from the Atlantic to California : not found immediately on 

 the coast of the Pacific. 



