AGELAINJE. 
These birds are peculiar to the continent of America. The North American species is migratory, and is found during 
winter in the Southern States, in immense flocks, particularly near the sea coast, and in the vicinity of large rice and 
corn fields. TV ilson observes that he has frequently been entertained with their aerial evolutions. Sometimes they 
appeared driving about like an enormous black cloud carried before the winds, varying its shape every moment ; some- 
times suddenly rising from the fields around him with a noise like thunder, then descending like a torrent, and 
covering the branches of some detached grove or clump of trees, the whole congregated multitude commenced one 
general concert or chorus, which he has plainly distinguished at the distance of more than two miles. They arrive in 
Pennsylvania in the beginning of March in immense flocks, and commence their devastations on the grub-worms, 
caterpillars, and various other larvae ; for these they search in the ground, at the roots of plants, in orchards and 
meadows, as well as among buds, leaves, and blossoms ; and, from their known voracity, the multitudes of these insects 
which they destroy must be immense. During the months of August and September, they pour down on the low 
countries near the coast in prodigious multitudes, wheeling and driving over the meadows and devoted corn fields, 
darkening the air with their numbers. Then commences the work of destruction on the corn, till little is left for the 
industrious husbandmen; and on the seeds of the reeds or wild oats, with a profusion of other plants, that abound along 
the banks of the great rivers. In the month of April, they separate in pairs, and begin to construct their nests, which 
are generally built m a marsh or swampy meadow, or other like watery situations : the spot, usually a thicket of alder 
bushes, at the height of six or seven feet from the ground ; sometimes in a detached bush, in a meadow of high o Ta ss ; 
often in a tussock of rushes or coarse rank grass ; and not unfrequently on the ground. TYlien in a bush, the nest is 
generally composed outwardly of wet rushes picked from the swamp, and long tough grass in large quantity, and well 
lined with very fine bent. The rushes forming the exterior are generally extended to several of the adjoining twigs, 
round which they are repeatedly and securely twisted ; a precaution absolutely necessary for its preservation, on account 
of the flexible nature of the bushes in which it is placed. The same caution is observed when a tussock is chosen, by 
fastening the tops together, and intertwining the materials of which the nest is formed with the stalks of rushes around. 
en placed on the ground, less care and fewer materials being necessary, the nest is much simpler and slighter. The 
female lays five eggs. ° 
1. A. phoeniceus (Linn.) Vieill. PI. enl. 402. — Icterus ptero- 
phceniceus Brian. ; Sturnus predatorius Wils. Amer. Orn. pi. 30. f. 1 , 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 
2. ; Oriolus melancholicus var. /3, Lath. PI. enl. 448. 
2. A. tricolor Audub. B. of Amer. pi. 388. f. 1. 
3. A. gubernator (Wagl.) Pr. Bonap. Isis, 1832.281. 
4. A. bicolor (Vieill.) N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 535. 
5. A. cyanopus (Vieill.) N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 552. — Ic. 1 
terus tanagrinus Spix, Av. Bras. t. 64. f. 1., Azara No. 71. 
6. A. curaius (Mol.) — Icterus sulcirostris Spix, Av. Bras. t. 64. 
f. 2 . ; Agelaius Chopi Vieill. ; Icterus unicolor IAcht. Azara No. 62. 
7. A. ? melancholicus (Linn.) Edwards’s Birds, pi. 85. 
8. A. pyrrhopterus (Vieill.) N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 543., 
Azara No. 74., Voy. Tile de Cuba, Ois. t. 20. — Leistes humeralis 
Vigors. 
9- A. pustulatus Swains. Two Centuries and a Quarter, p. 
303. 
10. A. longipes Swains. Phil. Mag. 1827. p. 436. — Icterus per- 
spicillatus Licht. Isis, 1829. 7 53. 
11. A . ameus (Licht.) Isis, 1829.758. 
12. A. viresevns (Vigors), Zool. Journ. No. xi. p. 441. p S a- 
rocolius melanopsis Wagl. 
13. A. aterrimus (Kittl.) Vogel von Chili, t. 2. — Leistes niger 
Swains. 
14. A. unicolor (Swains.) Two Centuries and a Quarter, p. 
304. ^ y 
15. A brevirostris (D’Orb. & Lafr.) Syn. Av. pt. ii. p. 7. 
16. A. xanthocephalus (Pr. Bonap.) Swains. — Icterus ' ictero- 
eephalus Pr. Bonap. Amer. Orn. pi. 3. f. p 2. 
Leistes Vigors* 
BiU more or less long, oilmen straight and flattened, with the base advancing on the forehead in a 
point, the sides compressed gradually to the tip, which is rounded; the gonys lengthened and advaneing 
upwards; the nostrils .basal, lateral, and membranous. Wings long and pointed, with the three first 
quills nearly equal and longest. Tail moderate and rounded. Tarsi shorter than the middle toe, and 
covered with broad scutellations. Toes lengthened, with the lateral ones unequal, and strongly scaled 
above ; the claws long and rather curved. 
it n 
Established by Vigors ( Zoological Journal, ii. 19 1.) in 1825. 
