22 
TIIE 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 BlackburnicB and S. 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. Amer. Orn., vol. ii. p. 145. 
Icterus pecoris, Bonap. Syn., p. 53. 
Molotiirus 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. Ora. 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, 111. 
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 8i- 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-J inches, its greatest width being inch ; it then 
contracts to i inch, and enters the thorax. The proventriculus measures 
44 twelfths broad. The stomach is a strong muscular gizzard, 9 twelfths 
long, 71 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*2* inches long, and varying 
from 2 twelfths to 14 twelfths in breadth.; the diameter of the rectum 24 
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 
