DOLICHONTX.— M0L0THEU8. 449 



Swainson, who states that Bullock's specimens submitted to him were obtained on the 

 tableland 2. In Yucatan and the islands of the east coast of British Honduras B. ory- 

 zivorus seems to be much more numerous, Mr. Gaumer having procured many examples. 

 It was on this coast too that Salvin met with it on a small coral islet at the northern 

 end of Lighthouse Reef, one of two islands called Northern two Cays ; this was on the 

 20th May, 1862, a very late date for the occurrence of individuals so far south. 



It also occurs in Costa Eica, its name being included in Mr. Zeledon's list, but it is 

 not mentioned by other writers on Costa-Rican birds. In the State of Panama it has 

 frequently been observed. We thus seem to trace the western limit of the line of the 

 migration of this species. In passing southwards the western flocks do not, as a rule, 

 go further westwards than the promontory of Yucatan ; thence they follow the coast-line 

 southwards to Panama, and then spread at large over the continent of South America. 

 The eastern border is not so definite. D. oryzivorus is recorded from the Bahamas and 

 from Grenada, but it is rare in British Guiana ; a large number of birds, therefore, 

 probably cross the Caribbean Sea from Cuba and Jamaica direct to the mainland of 

 South America. 



In their spring migration Dr. Gundlach tells us the male birds arrive in flocks apart 

 from the females, but that in autumn the sexes all associate together. 



As already stated, the males lose their dark plumage after the breeding-season and 

 assume the female dress, which again is changed at the approach of spring. 



Doliclionyx oryzivorus makes a flimsy nest of dried grasses on the ground, and lays 

 four or five eggs of a dull bluish-white colour, sometimes brownish-white spotted and 

 blotched with dark chocolate or blackish-brown surface-marks and others of paler 

 colour in the shell ^^. 



The notes of this species are described as very pleasing, many males often singing 

 together. 



MOLOTHRUS. 



Molothrus, Swainson, Faun. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 277 (1831) j Coues, Key N. Am. B. ed. 2, p. 401 ; 

 Scl. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 332. 



Mr. Sclater, in his recent catalogue of the Icteridae, includes nine species of Molo- 

 thrus which are distributed over the greater part of America, the bird of the northern 

 continent {Molothrus pecoris) extending from Canada southwards and Molothrus honari- 

 ends of the southern continent reaching the Straits of Magellan. Two species occur 

 within our region — the northern M. pecoris in both its forms occurring over the greater 

 portion of Mexico ; M. ceneus, on the other hand, is found throughout our region, and 

 crosses the Rio Grande into Texas. 



The curious habit of all members of this genus of the females laying their eggs in 

 other birds' nests, and leaving the duties of incubation and rearing their young to foster- 

 parents, has been very fully described by various authors— one of the most interesting 



BIOL. CENTE.-AMEB., Aves, Vol. I., February 1887. 67 



