FAMILY ICTERIDAE 



381 



vember. Chapman (op. cit.) found young in nestling plumage on the 

 wing in January 1929 near Pacora, Panama. On February 11, 1955, at 

 1260 m on the grassy lower edge of the llano at El Volcan, Chiriqui, I 

 found a small colony and collected 4 males with enlarging gonads. On 

 March 5, 1960, at Alanje, Chiriqui, I saw a female gathering dead grass 

 for nesting material. On March 18, 1949, at Chico, Panama, I col- 

 lected a female that was about to lay, and on March 20, 1911, E. A. 

 Goldman collected a partly grown young at Chepo, Panama. Eisen- 

 mann saw a bird carrying food on July 15 in Code and a number of 

 short-tailed fledglings at Remedios, Chiriqui, on July 16 and 23. J. Karr 

 (in lift, to Eisenmann) found a nest with three eggs on November 8, 

 1968, near La Jagua, eastern Province of Panama. 



A male collected by Strauch (Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, 1977, p. 64) 

 weighed 97.5 g. 



DOLICHONYX ORYZIVORUS (Linnaeus): Bobolink, Llanero Arrocero 



Fringilla oryzivora Linnaeus, 1758, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, p. 179. (South Carolina.) 



Rather small; male in basic plumage and female, buffy, streaked 

 black and dark brown on upper surface; male in alternate plumage, 

 black, with buffy nape and white lesser wing coverts, rump, and upper 

 tail coverts. 



Description. — Length 140-162 mm. Adult male in basic plumage 

 and adult female in all plumages, upper surface blackish brown with 

 most feathers edged various tones of buffy olive, giving streaked ap- 

 pearance; head with prominent cream-buff superciliary and central 

 crown stripe; wings dark brown; throat whitish; sides of face buffy 

 olive; rest of undersurface buff (tone varies individually), streaked 

 dark brown on sides and flanks; underwing coverts whitish. 



Adult male in alternate plumage, mostly black, with feathers often 

 tipped buff; broad patch on hindneck of buff to buffy yellow; lesser 

 wing coverts and scapulars, rump, and upper tail coverts white; lower 

 back light gray; primaries with outer web edged buff; tertials and 

 feathers of upper back broadly edged buff. 



Measurements. — Males (10 from North America, taken in May and 

 June), wing 95.4-101.0 (98.4), tail 61.4-67.3 (64.4), culmen from base 

 14.2-15.7 (15.1), tarsus 23.1-27.2 (25.3) mm. 



Females (10 from North America, taken in May), wing 85.0-90.9 

 (88.1), tail 55.9-63.8 (59.5), culmen from base 12.6-14.8 (14.0), tar- 

 sus 22.8-25.7 (23.9) mm. 



Migrant. An uncommon transient in Panama between mid-Septem- 



