with the usual black kind, there were generally a few dull brown coloured ones,
{Icterus sericeus of Licht.) which I presume are the young. Azara states that
the brown-coloured birds are smaller than the black glossy ones, and that they
sometimes form one-tenth of the whole number in a flock. In the single specimen
which I brought home, the size, with the exception of the length of the wing, is
only a very little less. Sonnini, in his notes to Azara, considers the brown birds
as the females ; I can, however, scarcely believe that so obvious a solution of the
difficulty could have escaped so accurate an observer as Azara, These birds
in La Plata often may be seen standing on the back of a cow or horse. While
perched on a hedge, and pluming themselves in the sun, they sometimes attempt
to sing or rather to hiss : the noise is very peculiar ; it resembles that of bubbles
of air passing rapidly from a small orifice under water, so as to produce an acute
sound. Azara states that this bird, like the cuckoo, deposits its eggs in other
birds' nests. I was several times told by the country people, that there was some
bird which bad this habit; and my assistant in collecting, who is a very accurate
person, found in the nest of the Zonotrichia rujicollis (a bird which occupies in
the ornithology of S. America the place of the common sparrow of Europe),
one egg larger than the others, and of a different colour and shape. This
egg is rather less than that of the missel-thrush, being '93 of an inch in
length, and *78 in breadth; it is of a bulky form, thick in the middle. The
ground colour is a pale pinkish-white, with irregular spots and blotches of a
bright reddish-brown, and others less distinct of a greyish hue. This species is
evidently a very close analogue of the 31. pecoris o f North America, from which,
however it may at once be distinguished by the absence of the glossy brown on
the head, neck, and upper breast,—by the metallic blueness of its plumage in
the place of a green tinge, and by its somewhat greater size in all its proportions.
The young or brown-coloured specimens of these Molothri resemble each other
more closely; that of the 31. pecoris \s of a lighter brown, especially under the
throat, and the small feathers on its breast and abdomen have each an obscure
dark central streak. The eggs of the Molothri, although having the same
general character, differ considerably; that of the 31. pecoris being smaller
and less SAVollen in the middle; it is -85 of an inch in length, and *78 in breadth.
Its colour cannot be better described than in the words of Dr. Richardson*—it is
“ of a greenish white, witli rather small crowded and confluent irregular spots of
pale liver-brown, intermixed with others of subdued purplish grey.” From this
• Fauoa Borealis, Birds, p. 278. Dr. Richardson states that the egg is only seven lines and a half in length.
I presume the measure of eight lines, instead of twelve to the inch, must in this case have been used. I am
much indebted to the kindness of Mr. Yarrell for lending me an egg of the Molothrus pecoris, forming part of a
collection of North American eggs in his possession.
description it is obvious that the egg of M. niger is larger and of a much redder
t in t; the more prominent spots also are larger, the subdued grey being quite
similar in both.
I f we were to judge from habits alone, the specific difference between these
two species of Molothrus might well he doubted; they seem closely to resemble
each other in general habits,—in manner of feeding,—in associating in the same
flock with other birds, and even in such peculiarities as often alighting on the backs
of cattle. The M. pecoris, like the M. niger, utters strange noises, which Wilson*
describes “ as a low spluttering note as if proceeding from the belly.” It appears
to me very interesting thus to find so close an agreement in structure, and in
habits, between allied species coming from opposite parts of a great continent.
Mr. Swainson t has remarked that with the exception of the Molothrus, the
cuckoos are the only birds which can he called truly parasitical; namely, such
as “ fasten themselves, as it were, on another living animal, whose animal heat
brings their young into life, whose food they alone live upon, and whose death
would cause theirs during the period of infancy.” It is very remarkable, that
the cuckoos and the molothri, although opposed to each other in almost every
habit, should agree in this strange one of their parasitical propagation : the
habit moreover is not universal in the species of either tribe. The Molothrus,
like our starling, is eminently sociable, and lives on the open plains without art
or d i s g u i s e t h e cuckoo, as every one knows, is a singularly shy bird; it
frequents the most retired thickets, and feeds on fruit and caterpillars.^
A m b l y r a m p h u s r u b e r . G. R . Gray.
Oriolus ruber, Gmel.
Amblyramphus bicolor, Leach.
Sturniis pyrrliocephalus, Licht.
Stumella rubra, Vieill.
Leistes erythrocephala, Swains. Class. Birds.
This bird frequented marshy places in the neighbourhood of Maldonado, but
it was not common there. It is more solitary than the following allied species ; I
have, however, seen it in a flock. Seated on a twig, with its beak widely open, it
often makes a slirili, hut plaintive and agreeable cry, which is sometimes single
* Wilson’s Americ.m Ornithology, vol. ii. p. 1 62.
t Mog.lzmc of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 217. Í See Azara, vol. hi. p. 170.
s I I appears that tho eggs in the same nest with that of the Mohtkru, pecoris, are turned ont by the parent
birds before they arc hatched, owing to tho egg of the M. pecoris being hatched in an nnnsnally short time; in
the case of tho young cuckoo, as is well known, the young bird itself throws out its foster-brothers. Mr. C. F o i,
however, (Silliman’s American Journal, vol. axijt. p. 292), relates an instance of three young sparrows having
been fouud alive with a Molothrus.