A History of North American Birds, Land Birds. Volume 2

There is only a trace of whitish on the edges of the primaries. The broad white edges to the secondaries are continuous in the folded wing with the white on the greater coverts, the lowest row of which, however, is black. The extreme and concealed base of the tail is white.

One specimen has the light markings yellow, instead of orange.

This species is given by Mr. Audubon as North American, on the strength of occasional stragglers from South America. One of the specimens before us was received from Mr. Audubon (2,842), and is, possibly, North American, although we doubt very much whether the species was ever taken within our limits, except as escaped from captivity.

An allied race (I. longirostris) from New Grenada has a longer and more slender bill, and a paler, lemon-yellow color. The I. aurantius of Brazil lacks the long, pointed, distinct feathers of the throat, and is of an intensely rich orange-red color, with much the same pattern as the present bird.

Habits. The common Troupial of South America and some of the West India Islands is probably only an imported species, or an accidental visitant. It is given by Mr. Audubon in the appendix to his seventh volume, on the strength of a specimen shot in Charleston, S. C., by his son, John W. The bird, when first seen, was perched on the point of the lightning-rod of Dr. Bachman’s house. A few days after others were seen, one of which was shot, though it fell into the river and was lost. Mr. Audubon was afterwards informed that small groups of four or five subsequently made their appearance in the same city and among the islands. If his information was correct, it precludes the supposition that those which have been procured are caged birds. Yet the Troupial is so common and so popular a bird in the cage, that its accidental occurrence is possible in many localities it never visits of its own accord.

This bird is common in all the northern countries of South America, Venezuela, Guiana, Rio Negro, Northern Brazil, etc. Its occurrence in Jamaica and the West Indies may be only accidental. It is said by Daudin to be a common species in South America, where it associates in large flocks, and constructs a large and pensile nest. In confinement it becomes very easily tamed, is reconciled to a life of imprisonment, and is very fond of those who feed and care for it. It has a loud, clear, and ringing whistle, and a great variety of call-notes and single or brief utterances, but rarely indulges in a continuous song. One kept in confinement several years answered readily to the name of Troopy, and always promptly responded, when thus addressed by his mistress, in notes of unmistakable and affectionate recognition. He was very fond of his liberty, and used his sharp bill with such effect that it was difficult to keep him in his cage. When at large he never attempted to escape, but returned upon being called. He, however, acquired such a mortal antipathy to children, attacked them so fiercely when at large, and his sharp bill was so dangerous a weapon, that it was found very necessary to keep him a close prisoner.

The eggs of this species measure 1.02 inches in length by .88 of an inch in breadth; they are a rounded, obtuse oval in shape. Their ground-color is a reddish-drab, and they are very generally blotched with markings of a deep claret-brown and faint purple, the markings being deeper and larger at one end.

Icterus melanocephalus, var. auduboni, Giraud

AUDUBON’S ORIOLE

Icterus auduboni, Giraud, Sixteen New Species Texas Birds, 1841 (not paged).—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 542.—Cassin, Pr. A. N. S. 1867, 53. Xanthornus melanocephalus, Bon. Consp. 1850, 434 (not the description of the young). Icterus melanocephalus, Cassin, Ill. I, V, 1854, 137, pl. xxi (the description, but perhaps not the figure).

Sp. Char. Bill stout; upper and lower outlines very little curved downwards. Tail much graduated. Head and neck all round (this color extending down on the throat), tail, and wings black; rest of body, under wing-coverts, and middle and lesser upper coverts, yellow; more olivaceous on the back. An interrupted band across the ends of the greater wing-coverts, with the terminal half of the edges of the quills, white. Supposed female similar, but the colors less vivid. Length, 9.25; wing, 4.00; tail, 4.65; tarsus, 1.10.

Hab. Valley of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas, southward; Oaxaca (Scl. 1859, 38); Xalapa (Scl. 132); Vera Cruz (temperate regions; Sumichrast, M. B. S.).

This bird is perhaps rather a local race (larger as more boreal) of I. melanocephalus⁴¹ of Southern Mexico. The differences are indicated in the foot-note.

The adult male of this species can be distinguished from the young male of I. prosthemelas only by stouter and less decurved bill, stronger feet, and black instead of yellow middle wing-coverts.

PLATE XXXV.

1. Icterus auduboni. ♂ Tamaulipas, Mex., 4063.

2. Icterus wagleri. ♂ Guat., 8089.

3. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus. ♀ Nevada, 53596.

4. Scolecophagus ferrugineus. ♂ Pa., 1322.

5. Icterus baltimore. ♂ Ft. Garry, 27046.

6. Icterus cucullatus. ♂ Tamaulipas, Mex., 4066.

7. Icterus parisorum. ♂ N. Leon, Mex., 4056.

8. Sturnus vulgaris. ♂ France, 19020.

Habits. This handsome and rather recent addition to our fauna is a Northern Mexican species, which extends north to the valley of the Rio Grande and into Texas, from various localities in which it has been procured. Lt. D. N. Couch, who found this species common from the Lower Rio Grande to the Sierra Madre, speaks of the strong mutual attachment shown by the sexes. He describes its song as soft and melancholy, and the notes as resembling peut-pou-it. The sweetness of its notes renders it a favorite as a caged bird. In the State of Vera Cruz this bird is given by Sumichrast as inhabiting the temperate regions, and as there having exclusively their centre of propagation. They are very common in the district of Orizaba, where they breed. Their common name is Calandria, a name also given, without discrimination, to four or five other species of Icteri common in Vera Cruz. Mr. Pease, in 1847, observed either this species or the melanocephalus at Jalapa, and in the neighborhood of the city of Mexico, in considerable numbers. This bird was first described and brought to notice as belonging to our fauna, by Mr. Giraud, in 1841. Since then, Mr. John H. Clark, zoölogist on the Mexican Boundary Survey, obtained several specimens from the Lower Rio Grande. It was first seen by him near Ringgold Barracks. It was not abundant, and its quiet manners and secluded habits prevented it from being very conspicuous. It was most frequently observed by him feeding on the fruit of the hackberry, but whenever approached, while thus feeding, it always showed signs of uneasiness, and soon after sought refuge in some place of greater concealment.

Usually pairs were to be seen keeping close together, apparently preferring the thick foliage found on the margin of ponds, or in the old bed of the river. They did not communicate with each other by any note, and Mr. Clark was struck with their remarkable silence. Their habits seemed to him very different from those of any other Oriole with which he was acquainted.

From the papers of Lieutenant Couch, quoted by Mr. Cassin, we learn that these birds were seen by him, March 3, at Santa Rosalio, eight leagues from Matamoras. They were in pairs, and both sexes were very shy and secluded, seeking insects on the prickly pear, or among the low mimosa-trees, seeming to be never at rest, but ever on the lookout for their favorite food.

While at Charco Escondido, farther in the interior of Tamaulipas, Lieutenant Couch met with a pair of these birds, and having brought down the male bird with his gun, the female flew to a neighboring tree, apparently unaware of her loss. She soon, however, observed his fall, and endeavored to recall him to her side with notes uttered in a strain of such exquisite sadness that he could scarcely believe them uttered by a bird; and so greatly did they excite his sympathy, that he almost resolved to desist from further ornithological collections. He adds that he never heard the lay of any songster of the feathered tribe expressed more sweetly than that of the present species. At Monterey he found it a favorite cage-bird. The female also sings, but her notes are less powerful than those of the male. Generally the flight of this bird was low and rapid, and it seemed to prefer the shade of trees. It was observed almost invariably in pairs, and the male and female showed for each other great tenderness and solicitude.

The eggs of this species measure .90 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth. Their ground-color is a light drab or a dull purplish-white, scattered over which are faint markings of a subdued purple, blending imperceptibly with the ground, and above these markings are dots and irregular zigzag lines of dark brown, and darker purple, almost running into black.

Icterus parisorum, Bonap

SCOTT’S ORIOLE

Icterus parisorum, (“Bon. Acad. Bonon. 1836.”)—Bp. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. V, 1837, 109.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 544, pl. lvii, f. 1; Mex. B. II, Birds, 19, pl. xix, f. 1.—Cassin, Pr. 1867, 54.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 276. Xanthornus parisorum, Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 434. Icterus melanochrysura, Lesson, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 105.—Icterus scotti, Couch, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VII, April, 1854, 66 (Coahuila).

Sp. Char. Bill attenuated; not much decurved; tail moderately graduated. Head and neck all round, breast, interscapular region, wings, and tail, black. Under parts generally, hinder part of back to the tail, middle and lesser upper, and whole of lower wing-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers, gamboge-yellow; a band across the ends of the greater coverts, with the edges of the inner secondaries and tertiaries, white. Length, 8.25; extent, 11.75; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.75; tarsus, .95.

Female. Olivaceous above, the back with obsolete dusky streaks; rump and under parts yellowish, clouded with gray. Tail brownish-olive on upper surface, more yellow beneath; wings with two white bands.

Hab. Valley of the Rio Grande; south to Guatemala. In Texas, found on the Pecos. Cape St. Lucas. Oaxaca, winter (Scl. 1858, 303); Orizaba (Scl. 1860, 251); Vera Cruz, temp. and alpine (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553).

The bill is slender and attenuated, very little decurved, much less so than in I. cucullatus, slenderer and a little more decurved than in I. baltimore. The tail is moderately graduated, the outer feather .45 of an inch less than the middle.

In this species the black feathers of the neck, except below, have a subterminal bar of yellow; elsewhere it is wanting. The black of the breast comes a little posterior to the anterior extremity of the folded wing. The posterior feathers in the yellow patch on the shoulders are tinged with white. The white in the bar across the ends of the greater coverts is confined mainly to the terminal quarter of an inch of the outer web. In the full plumage, there is only a faint trace of white on the edges of the primaries. The yellow of the base of the tail only extends on the middle feather as far as the end of the upper tail-coverts; on the three outer, it reaches to within an inch and a quarter of the end of the tail.

An immature male has the yellow more tinged with green, the black feathers of the head and back olivaceous with a black spot.

Specimens vary much in size; the more northern being the larger.

Icterus wagleri ⁴² is an allied species found just south of the Rio Grande by Lieutenant Couch, but not yet detected within our limits.

Habits. Notwithstanding the apparent abundance of the species at Cape St. Lucas, and also in Northern Mexico along our entire border, as far as New Mexico and Texas, our knowledge of its history still remains quite incomplete. A single specimen was obtained in Western Texas on the Pecos River, by Captain Pope, in 1856. Others were obtained by Lieutenant Couch, April, 1853, at Santa Catarina, in Mexico. They were first seen by him in the vicinity of Monterey. They were found to be generally of secluded habits. Their song, consisting of three or four notes, is said to be both rich and melodious.

In the State of Vera Cruz, this species is given by Sumichrast as occurring in both the temperate and the alpine regions. Its common name is Calandria india. They are said by him to occur chiefly in the temperate parts, where they breed, but not to be exclusively confined there, for they are also found in the alpine region to the height of at least five thousand feet, near Orizaba, and on the plateau at even a higher elevation. Dr. Cooper saw a bird at Fort Mohave, in April, which he supposed to be this bird, but he was not able to assure himself of the fact, by obtaining it.

Mr. Xantus found this species very abundant during his stay at Cape St. Lucas, and procured a number of specimens of the birds and of their nests and eggs. From his brief notes we gather that the nests are open, and are not pensile. One, found May 22, was built in a bunch of moss hanging down from an old cactus. Another was made in a bunch of hops, suspended from a cactus. A third was placed in a bunch of weeds growing out from a crevice in a perpendicular rock. Another, found May 29, was built in a small dead tree, overhung with vines. This nest was about five feet from the ground. A nest containing four young birds was found placed in a bunch of moss, hanging out of a crevice in a rock. These instances serve to show the general character of the position of their nests. Without being pensile they are usually resting upon pendent branches, and are not placed at great elevations.

The eggs measure .90 of an inch in length by .65 in breadth. Their shape is an oblong-oval, and they are obtuse at either end. Their ground-color is a dull white, with a purplish or a bluish tint. They are variously marked, in different eggs, with small blotches and finer dottings of a light purple, purplish-brown, darker purple, and even black.

Icterus spurius, Bon

ORCHARD ORIOLE

Oriolus spurius, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 162.—Gm. I, 1788, 389 (very inaccurate description; only identified by the references). Icterus spurius, Bon. Obs. on Nom. Wils. 1825, No. 44.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 221; V, 485 pl. xlii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 46, pl. ccxix.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 547.—Samuels, 346. Oriolus varius, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 390. Turdus ater, Gm. Syst. 1788, I; 1788, 83. Oriolus castaneus, Latham, Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 181 (same citations as O. varius, Gm.). Turdus jugularis, Latham, Ind. Orn. I, 1790, 361 (same citations as Turdus ater, Gm.). Yphantes solitaria, Vieillot ♂. “Pendulinus nigricollis, Vieill. ♂—viridis, Ib.” Oriolus mutatus, Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 64, pl. iv, f. 1-4. Xanthornus affinis, Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. N. H. V, May, 1851, 113 (small race from Texas). Pendulinus s., Cass. Pr. 1867, 61. Pendulinus affinis, Cass. Pr. 1867, 61.

Sp. Char. Bill slender, attenuated, considerably decurved; tail moderately graduated. Male, three years. Head and neck all round, wings, and interscapular region of back, with tail-feathers, black. Rest of under parts, lower part of back to tail, and lesser upper wing-coverts, with the lower one, brownish-chestnut. A narrow line across the wing, and the extreme outer edges of quills, white. Female. Uniform greenish-yellow beneath, olivaceous above, and browner in the middle of the back; two white bands on the wings. Young male of two years like the female, but with a broad black patch from the bill to the upper part of the breast, this color extending along the base of the bill so as to involve the eye and all anterior to it to the base of the bill, somewhat as in I. cucullatus. Length of Pennsylvania male specimens, 7.25; wing, 3.25.

Hab. United States from the Atlantic to the high Central Plains, probably throughout Texas; south to Guatemala. Xalapa (Scl. 1859, 365); Cordova (Scl. 1856, 301); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 20; Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. IX, 104); Rio Atrato (Cass. P. A. N. S. 1860, 140); Costa Rica (Caban. J. 1861, 8); Panama (Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 331); Cuba (Gundlach); Veragua (Salvin, 1867, 142); Vera Cruz, winter (Sum. M. B. S. I,); Mazatlan.

This species varies greatly in size with its geographical distribution.

Winter specimens from Mexico have the black obscured by brownish borders to the feathers.

Habits. The Orchard Oriole is found abundant throughout most of the United States, from the Atlantic to the Missouri Valley, and on the southwest to the valley of the Rio Grande. Mr. J. A. Allen met with individuals of this species as far west as the base of the Rocky Mountains, in Colorado, which he regards as the extreme western limit. It is a very rare summer visitant in New England, though found even as far eastward as Calais, Me. It was not found in Western Maine by Verrill, nor am I aware of its having been met with in either New Hampshire or Vermont. Mr. Allen states that a few pairs breed every season near Springfield, in Western Massachusetts. I have never met with it in the eastern part of the State, but others have been more fortunate, and it is probable that a few visit us each season.

In Texas Mr. Dresser found this species very common at San Antonio during the summer, arriving there quite early in April. He procured a number of their nests, all of which were made of light-colored flexible grasses, and suspended from the upper branches of the mesquite-trees. He also found them breeding near Houston, and on Galveston Island. He describes them as much smaller than birds from the Northern States. This smaller race Mr. Lawrence has regarded as a distinct species, to which he gives the name of affinis. It has been traced as far to the west as Fort Riley in Kansas, and Fort Lookout in Nebraska. It winters in Guatemala, where it is very abundant at that season. Mr. James McLeannan killed it as far south as Panama.

Dr. Elliott Coues considers this bird as rare and chiefly migrant in South Carolina; but Mr. H. S. Rodney (Naturalist, Jan., 1872) found them quite numerous at Camden, in that State, in the summer of 1871. He met with five nests between June 28 and July 19, and has no doubt he could have taken many more, as he counted at least fifteen different pairs. From the fact that Dr. Coues did not meet with any nest at Columbia, only thirty miles distant, Mr. Rodney infers that this Oriole is very partial to certain favored localities, as is also the Baltimore.

The Orchard Oriole is an active, sprightly, and very lively species, and possesses a very peculiar and somewhat remarkable song. Its notes are very rapidly enunciated, and are both hurried and energetic. Some writers speak of the song as confused, but this attribute is not in the utterance of the song, the musician manifesting anything but confusion in the rapid and distinct enunciation of his gushing notes. These may be too quick in their utterance for the listener to follow, but they are wonderful both for their rapidity and their harmony. His performance consists of shrill and lively notes, uttered with an apparent air of great agitation, and they are quite as distinct and agreeable, though neither so full nor so rich, as are those of the more celebrated Golden Robin.

In the Central States, from New York to North Carolina, these birds are not only very abundant, but very generally diffused. Hardly an orchard or a garden of any size can be found without them. They seem to prefer apple-trees for their abode, and for the construction of their nests. These structures, though essentially different, are, in their style of architecture, quite as curiously wrought and ingenious as those of the Baltimore. They are suspended from small twigs, often at the very extremity of the branches. In Pennsylvania they are usually formed externally of a peculiar kind of long, tough, and flexible grass. This material is woven through and through in a very wonderful manner, and with as much neatness and intricacy as if actually sewed with a needle. They are hemispherical in shape, open at the top, and generally about four inches in breadth and three deep. The cavity has a depth and a width of about two inches.

Wilson states that, having had the curiosity to detach one of these fibres of dried grass from the nest, he found it thirteen inches in length, and that, in that distance, it had been hooked through and returned no less than thirty-four times! In this manner it was passed entirely around the nest. The nests are occasionally lined with wool or the down of seeds. The external portions are strongly fastened to several twigs, so that they may be blown about by the wind without being upset.

Wilson also remarks that he observed that when these nests are built in the long pendent branches of the weeping-willow, where they are liable to much greater motion, though formed of the same materials, they are always made much deeper and of slighter texture. He regards this as a manifestation of a remarkable intelligence, almost equivalent to reason. The willow, owing to the greater density of its foliage, affords better shelter, and is preferred on that account, and owing to the great sweep, in the wind, of the branches, the eggs would be liable to be rolled out if the nest were of the usual depth; hence this adaptation to such positions.

The food of the Orchard Oriole is almost exclusively insects. Of these it consumes a large number, and with them it also feeds its young. Most of these are of the kinds most obnoxious to the husbandman, preying upon the foliage, destroying the fruit, and otherwise injuring the trees, and their destroyers render an incalculable amount of benefit to the gardens they favor with their presence. At the same time they are entirely innocent of injury to crops of any description, and I cannot find that any accusations or expressions of suspicion have been raised against them. They seem to be, therefore, general favorites, and, wherever protected, evince their appreciation of this good-will by their familiarity and numbers.

The female sits upon her eggs fourteen days, and the young remain in the nest about ten days longer. They are supposed to have occasionally two broods in a season, as nests with eggs are found the last of July. They are said to arrive in Pennsylvania about the first of May, and to leave before the middle of September.

According to Wilson they are easily raised from the nest, and become very tame and familiar. One that he kept through the winter, when two months old whistled with great clearness and vivacity.

All the nests of this species that I have seen from Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, or Texas, have no lining, but are wholly made of one material, a flexible kind of reed or grass.

The sociability of this species is one of its most marked characteristics. Audubon says that he has known no less than nine nests in the same enclosure, and all the birds living together in great harmony.

A nest of this bird, taken in Berlin, Conn., by Mr. Brandigee, has a diameter and a height of four inches. Its cavity is three inches in depth, and varies from three to three and a half in diameter, being widest at the centre, or half-way between the top and the base. It is entirely homogeneous, having been elaborately and skilfully woven of long green blades of grass. The inside is lined with animal wool, bits of yarn, and intermingled with a wooly substance of entirely vegetable origin. It was built from the extremity of the branch of an apple-tree.

An egg of this species, from Washington, measures .85 of an inch in length by .62 in breadth. The ground is a pale bluish-white, blotched with a pale purple, and dashed, at the larger end, with a few deep markings of dark purplish-brown. An egg from New Mexico is similar, but measures .79 of an inch by .54. Both are oblong oval, and pointed at one end.

Icterus cucullatus, Swainson

HOODED ORIOLE

Icterus cucullatus, Swainson, Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 436.—Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lyc. V, May, 1851, 116 (first introduced into fauna of United States).—Cassin, Ill. I, II, 1853, 42, pl. viii.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 275.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 546. Pendulinus cucullatus, Bon. Consp. 1850, 433.—Cass. Pr. 1867, 60.

Sp. Char. Both mandibles much curved. Tail much graduated. Wings, a rather narrow band across the back, tail, and a patch starting as a narrow frontal band, involving the eyes, anterior half of cheek, chin, and throat, and ending as a rounded patch on the upper part of breast, black. Rest of body orange-yellow. Two bands on the wing and the edges of the quills white. Female without the black patch of the throat; the upper parts generally yellowish-green, brown on the back, beneath yellowish. Length, 7.50; wing, 3.25.

Hab. Valley of Lower Rio Grande, southward; Tucson, Arizona (Dr. Palmer); Lower California, Cordova (Scl. 1856, 300); Guatemala? (Scl. Ibis I, 20); Cuba? (Lawr. Ann. VII, 1860, 267); San Bernardino, California (Cooper, P. Cal., etc. 1861, 122); Vera Cruz hot region (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553); Mazatlan.

The orange varies greatly in tint and intensity with the individual; sometimes it is deep orange-red; often clear dull yellow, but more frequently of an oily orange.

This species is closely allied to the I. aurocapillus of South America, but differs in having black, not yellow, shoulders, and in the white markings on the wings.

Habits. The Hooded Oriole is essentially a Mexican species, though it also extends northward into Texas at the Rio Grande, and into Southern California and Arizona. It was not noticed by Dr. Coues in Arizona, but Lieutenant Charles Bendire found it breeding near Tucson in the summer of 1872. It is abundant at Cape St. Lucas. Dr. Cooper found that this species arrived at San Diego about April 22, where they were not rare for a fortnight afterwards, and all then retired into the warmer interior valleys, where he has seen them as far to the north as Los Angeles. While migrating, they were generally silent.

Captain McCown found it quite common on the Rio Grande, where it rears its young. When met with in the woods and far away from the abodes of men, it seemed shy and disposed to conceal itself. Yet a pair of these birds were his constant visitors, morning and evening. They came to the vicinity of his quarters—an unfinished building—at Ringgold Barracks, and at last became so tame and familiar that they would pass from some ebony-trees, that stood near by, to the porch, clinging to the shingles and rafters, frequently in an inverted position, prying into the holes and crevices, apparently in search of spiders and such insects as could be found there. From this occupation they would occasionally desist, to watch his movements. He never could induce them to partake of the food he offered them.

Lieutenant Couch found this species common in the states of Tamaulipas and New Leon. He found their nests generally on or under the tops of the palm known as the Spanish bayonet.

This species is given by Mr. Sumichrast as one of the birds of Vera Cruz, where it is exclusively an inhabitant of the hot region, and where it is rarely found above an elevation of eighteen hundred feet.

These birds were found quite abundant at Cape St. Lucas, Lower California, by Mr. Xantus, by whom a number of their nests and eggs were obtained. The following brief memoranda in regard to a few of these nests will serve to show their general position:—“Nest and two eggs, found May 20, about ten feet from the ground, woven to a small aloe, in a bunch of the Acacia prosopis. Nest and two eggs, found May 22, on a dry tree overhung with hops. Nest and one egg, found May 30, on an acacia, about fifteen feet from the ground. Nest with young, found on an aloe four feet high. Nest and eggs, found on a moss hanging out of a perpendicular bluff, on the sea-coast. Nest and eggs found on a Yucca angustifolia, on its stem, six feet from the ground. Nest and two eggs, found in a convolvulus, on a perpendicular rock fifty feet high. Nest and three eggs, found on an acacia, twenty-five feet high.”

The eggs of this species vary somewhat in shape, some being obtuse and more spherical, others more pointed and oblong. They vary in length from .92 to .88 of an inch, and from .68 to .65 of an inch in breadth. They have a clear white ground, marbled and blotched with large dashes, dots, and irregular zigzag lines of purple, brown, and black, chiefly disposed around the larger end. In those where the spots are more diffused they are blended with obscure blotches of a faint lavender.

Icterus baltimore, Daudin

BALTIMORE ORIOLE; GOLDEN ROBIN; HANG-NEST

Oriolus baltimore, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 162.—Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 23, pl. i.—Ib. VI, 1812, pl. liii. “Icterus baltimore, Daud.”—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 66; V, 1839, 278, pls. xii. and ccccxxiii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 37, pl. ccxvii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 548.—Sclater & Salvin, Ex. Orn. I, 69, 188 (diagnosis).—Samuels, 348. Yphantes baltimore, Vieillot, Gal. des Ois. I, 1824, 124, pl. lxxxvii. Psarocolius baltimore, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1825, No. 26. Le Baltimore, Buff. pl. enl. 506, f. 1. Hyphantes b., Cass. Pr. 1867, 62.

Sp. Char. Tail nearly even. Head all round and to middle of back, scapulars, wings, and upper surface of tail, black; rest of under parts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lesser wing-coverts, with terminal portion of tail-feathers (except two innermost), orange-red. Edges of wing-quills, with a band across the tips of the greater coverts, white. Length, 7.50 inches; wing, 3.75.

The female much less brilliant in color; the black of the head and back generally replaced by brownish-yellow, purer on the throat; each feather with a black spot.

Hab. From Atlantic coast to the high Central Plains, and in their borders; south to Panama. Xalapa (Scl. 1856, 365); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 20); Cuba (Caban. J. IV, 10); Costa Rica (Caban. J. 1861, 7; Lawr. IX, 104); Panama (Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 331); Veragua (Salv. 1867, 142); Mosquito Coast (Scl. & Salv. 1867, 279); Vera Cruz (autumn, Sum. M. B. S. I, 553).