THE STAELING. 429 



Several attempts have been made to introduce tins species into the United 

 States-, but until recently none have been permanently successful. 



Mr. Franli M. Chapman, of the American Museum of Natural History in 

 Central Park, New York City, writes me as follows on this subject: 



"The last introduction of the Starling by Mr. Eugene Schiefflin has appar- 

 ently been successful. The birds were liberated in Central Park, but the majority 

 have left this and spread over the more northern part of the city. One pair 

 bred under the eaves of this museum in the summer of 1893, and this year two 

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

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

 department, tells me that no less than ten pairs are passing the summer at 

 Kingsbridge, near Spu3^ten Duyvel, and that he knew where five pairs nested 

 there last year. They 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, it will not 

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



An attemj^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 set. The eggs vary in shape from 

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

 siderably in color, ranging from a pale greenish-blue to pale bluish-white. 



The average measurement of forty specimens in the United States National 

 Museum collection is 29.46 by 21.34 millimetres, or 1.16 by 0.84 inches; 

 the largest egg measures 31.75 by 22.10 millimetres, or 1.25 by 0.87 inches; the 

 smallest, 26.67 by 19.30 millimetres, or 1.05 by 0.76 inches. None of these 

 eggs are figured. 



Family ICTERID^. Blackbirds, Orioles, etc. 

 169. Dolichonyx oryzivorus (Linn.eus). 



BOBOLINK. 



Fringilla oryzivora Linnjeus, Systenia JSTatunie, ed. 10, I, 1758, 179. 

 Dolichonyx- oryzivorus Swainson, Zoological Journal, III, 1827, 351. 

 (B 399, C 210, E 257, 312, U 494.) 



Geographical 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 Assiuiboia to about latitude 52° N., and thence westward 

 to southern British Columbia. In the United States west to Utah and eastern Nevada. 

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



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

 the Northern States, as " Ortolan" and " Reedbird" on the Atlantic coast in the fall, 

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

 in South Carolina, Oeorgia, and Louisiana, and as "Butterbird" in Jamaica, 



