1883.] MR. A. BOUCARD ON BIRDS FROM YUCATAN. 445 



bnsy scratching for its food. Generally seen in pairs, rarely mounts 

 high nor flies far, is a good singer, and when hunting for its food 

 it constantly utters its sweet chirp, which fills the woods with joy. 



[Mr. Gaumer"s skins are a little paler beneath tlian typical E. 

 chloronota, but the difference is but slight, — O. /S'.] 



57. Chrysomitris Mexican a (Sw.). 

 Common in the corn-fields. 



58. Cassicus HOLOSERiCEUs(Licht.); Sclater, Ibis, 1883, p. 163. 



This bird is quite common in the margins of corn-fields and 

 in open places in the forests. Its peculiar wedj^e-shaped bill 

 is well adapted to its mode of extracting worms. Tliis bird selects 

 a thicket of dead weeds, then mounts the stem of a plant suspected 

 of having a worm inside ; with its wedge-bill it splits the weed, and 

 with a twist crushes and tears away the half, thus exposing the 

 enclosed worm. This it does also with tiie hard limbs of bushes 

 and trees. The muscles of the head are wonderfully developed, and 

 on this account the bird possesses great wrenching force. It lives in 

 Yucatan all the year. 



59. Icterus auratus, Bp. ; Lawr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ix. p. 271 ; 



Sclater, Ibis, 1883, p. 369. 



A very rare species ; only two specimens obtained. 



60. Icterus cucullatus, Sw. 



Very common in the western towns, but more rare in the eastern. 

 It is found alike in forest, field, and village and is everywhere a 

 favourite bird with the natives. It builds a very long pendent nest. 



61. Icterus GiRAUDi, Cassin. 



Common. 



62. Icterus mesomelas, Wagler. 



Oriolus musicus, Cabot, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. i. p. 156 ; Bost. 

 Journ. N. H. iv. p. 465. 



Calotmul, June 1880. 



Like the last is common in all parts. Its habits are nearly the 

 same. 



63. MOLOTHRUS ^NEUS (Wagl.). 



This bird is very abundant in all parts of Yucatan. It lives in 

 flocks, and generally frequents barn-yards and cow-pens. I have 

 frequently seen it perched upon the back of a horse or cow, in order to 

 pick maggots out of old sores. These sores are very prevalent among 

 draught-horses in Yucatan, and wherever there is a sore the flies 

 soon populate it with their larvse : the sore then spreads, and hundreds 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1883, No. XXX. 30 



