AGELAINiE. 
Doltchonyx Swains.* 
Bill very short, conical, the culmen elevated and nearly straight to the tip ; the sides gradually 
compressed ; the lateral margins sinuated ; the gonys lengthened and advancing upwards ; the nostrils 
basal, lateral, covered with a membrane, and having the opening anteriorly. Wings moderate, pointed, 
with the first and second quills equal and longest. Tail slightly graduated, with the points of the 
feathers laterally acuminated and rigid. Tarsi as long as the middle toe, and slender. Toes very long 
and slender ; the lateral ones unequal, the inner the longest, the hind toe nearly equalling the length of 
the tarsus ; and all armed with long, very slender, and slightly curved claws. 
They are peculiar to the continent of America and the West Indies. Wilson informs us that the winter residence 
of these birds is supposed to be from Mexico to the mouth of the Amazons, whence, in hosts innumerable, they 
regularly issue every spring, extending their migrations northwardly, as far as 54° N. They appear in the lower 
parts of Pennsylvania about the 12th of May ; while there, the males are extremely gay and full of song, frequenting 
meadows, newly ploughed fields, the sides of creeks, rivers, and watery places, feeding on may-flies and caterpillars, of 
which they destroy great quantities. In their passage, however, through Virginia at this season, they do great 
damage to the early wheat and barley while in its milky state. About the 20th of May, they disappear on their way 
to the north, where they remain during the summer, building and rearing their young. In the month of June, the 
colour of the male begins to change, gradually assimilating to that of the female, and before the beginning of August 
it is difficult to distinguish the one from the other. Insects of various kinds, grubs, may-flies, and caterpillars, the 
young ears of Indian corn, and the seeds of reeds or wild oats, furnish them with such abundance of nutritious food, 
that in a short time tney become extremely fat. The nest is fixed on the ground, generally in a field of grass ; the 
outside is composed of dry leaves and coarse grass ; the inside is lined with fine stalks of the same, laid in considerable 
quantity. The female lays five eggs. The song of the male, while the female is sitting, consists of a jingling medley 
of short variable notes, uttered with such seeming confusion and rapidity, and continued for such a considerable time, 
that it appears as if half a dozen birds of different kinds were all singing together. 
1. D. oryzivorus (Linn.) Swains. Wils. Amer. Orn. pi. 12. f. 1, \ 
2. — Icterus agripennis Pr. Bonap. PI. enl. 388. 
2. D. ? rufescens (Vieill.) N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxv. 25. 
* Established by Mr. Swainson [Zool. Journ. iii. p. 351.) in 1827. 
December, 1844. 
