22 THE COW-PEN-BIRD. 



I think, therefore, that the Goldfinch should be struck from the list of 

 those species in the nests of which the Cow-bird lays. On the other 

 hand, Sylvia Blackbumise and 8. vermivora are to be added to it. The 

 Cow-bird is very common at Boston, having its eggs in the nests of the 

 White-eyed Vireo, the Red-eyed, and any other that it chances to encounter, 

 and departing in autumn for the south. 



Cow Bunting, Emberiza pecoris, Wils. Airier. Orn., vol. ii. p. 145. 



Icterus pecoris, Bonap. Syn., p. 53. 



Molothrus pecoris, Cow-pen or Cuckoo Bunt, Swains, and Rich. F. Bor. Amer., vol. 



ii. p. 277. 

 Cow Troopial, or Cow Blackbird, Icterus pecoris, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 178. 

 Cow-pen-bird, Icterus pecoris, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 493; vol. v. p. 233, 490. 



Male with the head and neck sooty -brown, the body black, glossed with 

 green, the fore part of the back with blue. Female considerably smaller, 

 greyish-brown, the lower parts lighter. Young with the upper parts grey- 

 ish-brown, the quills and tail darker; wing-coverts and secondary quills 

 narrowly edged with light brown, primaries with whitish; lower parts dull 

 yellowish-white, the sides marked with a series of dark brown pointed spots. 



Male, 7, 11 \. 



Dispersed from Texas northward to lat. 68°, and throughout the United 

 States. Great numbers winter in the Southern States. 



An adult male of this species preserved in spirits presents the following 

 characters. The roof of the mouth has three longitudinal ridges anteriorly, 

 the middle ridge terminated by a soft prominence, similar to that of the 

 Buntings, behind which the palate descends in the same manner as in them. 

 The posterior aperture of the nares is oblong, with an anterior slit. The 

 tongue is 7 twelfths long, fleshy, tapering, flat above, horny towards the end, 

 and pointed. The oesophagus, which is 2>\ inches long, passes along the 

 right side of the neck, accompanied by the trachea; its diameter at the com- 

 mencement is 4 twelfths, but it immediately dilates into a crop, which 

 extends to the length of 1^ inches, its greatest width being \ inch; it then 

 contracts to \ inch, and enters the thorax. The proventriculus measures 

 4\ twelfths broad. The stomach is a strong muscular gizzard, 9 twelfths 

 long, 1\ twelfths broad, a little compressed; the lateral muscles large and 

 distinct; the epithelium tough, longitudinally rugous, and of a reddish-brown 

 colour. The contents of the stomach are grains of wheat. The intestine is 

 rather short, and of moderate diameter, being 9^ inches long, and varying 

 from 2 twelfths to 1^ twelfths in breadth; the diameter of the rectum 2\ 

 twelfths, being the same as that of the gut immediately before it; and there 

 is scarcely any distinct cloaca, the width of that part being not more than 4 



