BIRDS OF NOBTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 369 



Slumella magna {not Alauda magna Linnaeus) Sclatek, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 

 1886, 358 (Cuba).— Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, i, 1887, 

 456, part (Cuba) . 



Genus DOLICHONYX Swainson. 



Dolichonyx Swainson, Zool. Journ., iii, 1827, 351; Philos. Mag., newser., i, June, 

 1827, 435. (Type, Pringilla oryzivora LinniBUS.) 



Small, semiterrestrial Icteridse with short finch-like bill, acuminate 

 rectrices, long tarsi, very long middle toe, and long slender claws; 

 adult male black varied with buff and whitish in spring and summer; 

 adult male in fall and winter, adult female at all seasons, and young 

 brownish yellow, conspicuously streaked above. 



Bill much shorter than head, conical, compressed, its basal depth 

 greater than distance from nostril to tip of maxilla, its basal width 

 nearly the same, or about equal to length of gonys; culmen nearly 

 straight, but slightly convex terminally,- the base elevated and more 

 or less arched, the middle portion sometimes slightly depressed; gonys 

 straight or very faintly convex, nearly equal to distance from nostril 

 to tip of maxilla; maxillary tomium slightly concave terminally and 

 subbasally, slightly convex in middle, the basal portion decidedly and 

 rather abruptly deflexed from beneath posterior end of nostril to 

 rictus; mandibular tomium straight or nearly so to near base where 

 abruptly deflexed to the rictus. Nostril above lateral median line of 

 the maxilla, rather large, oval, with distinct superior operculum, the 

 feathering of the loral antise extending beneath to about its middle. 

 Wing long (about six and a half times as long as culmen, more than 

 three and a half times as long as tarsus), with the tip much produced 

 (longest primaries exceeding secondaries by more than length of 

 tarsus), pointed; outermost (ninth) primary nearly or quite equal to 

 eighth, sometimes longer; ninth, ninth and eighth, or eighth primaries 

 longest, the seventh but little shorter; ninth and eighth (sometimes also 

 theseventh) primaries with inner webs very slightly emarginated near 

 tip, the termination of the broader portion forming, in adults, a more 

 or less distinct tooth-like projection or point; longest tertial projecting 

 decidedly beyond secondaries. Tail about two-thirds as long as wing, 

 rounded, the rectrices rigid and with abruptly acuminate tips. Tarsus 

 long (about one and three-fourths times as long as culmen), slender, 

 its anterior scutella distinct; middle toe, with claw, longer than tarsus; 

 claws of lateral toes falling decidedly short of base of middle claw; 

 hallux about as long as lateral toes, stouter, its claw nearly or quite 

 equal in length to the digit; all the claws very slender, acute, not 

 strongly curved. 



Coloration. — Adult male in spring and early summer black varied 

 by a large buff or buff'y whitish nuchal patch, the scapulars, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts white tinged with gray; adult male after summer 

 3654^voL 2—01 24 



