MOLOTHEUS. 563 



Genus MOLOTHRUS Swains. 



Molothrus Swainson, Faun. Bor.-Amer. p. 277, 1832. Type M. ater 

 (Bodd.). 



Fig. 204. — Molothrus atronitens. 



In this genus the velvet-like tufts o£ feathers behind the 

 nostrils are present. The bill is pointed and compressed, the 

 width and depth at the base are about equal to half the length 

 of the exposed culmen. The wing is rounded, the second and 

 third primaries longest and equal, and the first about equal 

 in length to the fourth. The tail is square at the tip and 

 about two-thirds the length of the wing. The tarsus is nearly 

 twice the length of the exposed culmen and the middle toe and 

 claw about four-fifths the length of the tarsus. Coloration : male 

 and female different. 



703. Molothrus atronitens. 



Glossy Cowbihd. 



Molothrus atronitens Cab. in Schomb. Eeis. Guian. iii. p. 682, 1848 

 (British Guiana) ; Sclater, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 337, 1885 

 (Georgetown) ; Quelch, Timehri (2) v. p. 86, 1891 (Georgetown) ; 

 Lloyd Price, torn. cit. p. 65 (nesting habits) ; Brabourne & Chubb, 

 B. S. Amer. i. p. 435, no. 4474, 1912 ; Beebe, Our Search for a 

 Wilderness, p. 125 (Georgetown); id. Tropical Wild Life in British 

 Guiana, p. 137, 1917 (Bartica). ^ 



Adult male. Crown of head, throat, and neck all round, breast, 

 abdomen, back, and scapulars glossy purple ; wings, tail, upper 

 and under tail coverts glossy steel-green like the under wing- 

 coverts ; under surface of flight-quills and lower aspect of tail 

 shining black. 



Total length 191 mm., exposed culmen 16, wing 29, tail 72, 

 tarsus 25, middle toe and claw 20. 



The male described was collected on the Anarica River in 

 1913. 



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