278 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



in the southern parts of the United States and in Mexico*. It returns to Penn- 

 sylvania in March, and entirely disappears again in June, having then gone 

 further north. Its food consists of grain, grass, and worms, particularly the 

 intestinal ones, which are found among the excrements of the ruminant animals 

 in spring : on this account it associates with the cattle, frequently resting fami- 

 liarly on their backs like the Common Starling. Its egg is roundish, seven lines 

 and a half long, and of a greenish-white colour, with rather small crowded and 

 confluent irregular spots of pale liver-brown, intermixed with others of subdued 

 purplish-grey. — R. 



DESCRIPTION 



Of an adult male, killed near New York. (In Mr. Swainson's museum.) 



Colour. — The whole head, neck, throat, and breast chestnut-brown, inclining in some to 

 umber, and in others to yellowish-brown. The rest of the plumage deep blackish-brown, 

 richly glossed on the body with bluish-green, and, adjoining the chestnut-brown of the head, 

 with blue-purple : the gloss on the quills and tail is very faint. 



Form, typical. Bill short, conic, Finch-like ; the culmen or ridge is convex and very 

 slightly arched, the tip not depressed, and both mandibles entire. Wings long, pointed ; 

 the first quill generally longest, the second very nearly equal ; lesser quills truncate and 

 slightly emarginate. Tail slightly forked in the middle ; but its sides rounded (as in the 

 Ceblepyrince), reaching an inch and a quarter beyond the wings. Tarsi lengthened; claws 

 slender ; anterior lateral toes equal. 



The Georgian specimens are richer in colour, and the brown of the head and neck fuller. 



The young are at first altogether brown, and the breast is spotted ; the black begins to 

 appear at the end of the second month, and at three months the plumage is complete. 









Dimensions 

















Of the male. 













Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. 



Lin. 





Inch. Lin. 



Length, total 



. 7 



3 



Length of bill from rictus 



. 



8k 



Length of hind toe 



. 5* 



,, of tail 



. 3 



H 



,, of tarsus 



1 



H 



,, of its claw . 



• 3£ 



„ of wing 



. 4 



3 











— Sw. 



[86.] 1. Dolichonyx oryzivorus. (Swainson.) Sharp-tailed Rice-bird. 



Sub-family, Agelainae. Genus, Dolichonyx, Swains. 



Rice-bird. Edwards, pi. 291. 



Rice-bunting. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 3C0, No. 225. Wilson, ii., p. 48, pi. 12, ff. 1 and 2. 



Icterus agripennis. Bonap. Syn., p. 53, No. 54. 



Dolichonyx oryzivorus. Swains. Syn., No. 54. 



Seecawk-petheesew {Skunk-bird). Cree Indians. 



This singular bird, known in the United States by the provincial names of 



* Young and adult specimens, from the Table- land of Mexico, are in our museum. — Sw. 



