ICTERUS. 465 
Jalapa (de Oca 6), Playa Vicente (Boucard*), Chihuitan, Santa Efigenia, Tehuan- 
tepec city (Sumichrast 2"), Jolbox I., Cozumel I. (G. 7. Gaumer 4); British Hon- 
DURAS, Belize (Blancaneaux); Guatemata (Velasquez, Constancia 3, Skinner 2"), 
Duefias **, Retalhuleu, Coban 22, and Escuintla, and throughout the Costa Grande 
in January and February, Cahabon 4, Choctum (0. S. & F. D. G.); Honpuras, 
Ruatan I. (@. F. Gawmer), San Pedro (G. M. Whitely*); Nicaragua, Omotepe I. 
(Nutting *); Costa Rica (v. Frantzius 517), San José (v. Frantzius 16, Carmiol 18), 
Trazu (Rogers *); Panama, David (Hicks ®), Lion-Hill Station (M+Leannan* °"), 
Line of Railway (Arcé 4).—Cotomaia, Atrato 2°; Cusa 2, 
As will be seen from the above list of localities, Icterus spwrius is a very widely 
distributed and common species throughout our region, where it lives during the 
winter season. It breeds on the Texan side of the Rio Grande valley ; but whether it 
does so in any portion of Mexico remains yet to be proved. It hardly passes beyond 
our limits in its southern migration. We are not aware that it ever occurs in the trade 
collections made in the interior of Colombia, nor did Salmon meet with it in the Cauca 
valley ; but a single male was obtained during Lieut. Michler’s exploring expedition on 
the banks of the Atrato, and Dr. Cabanis records a young bird from Cartagena. It 
also occurs in Cuba, but apparently in no great numbers, though it is abundant on the 
coast of Yucatan and the adjoining islands. In Guatemala we not unfrequently met with 
young males moulting into their adult plumage; but it is not clear to us by what 
sequence of change of feathers this process is carried out. We have young males in 
the female plumage, but with black throats and a few of the chestnut feathers just 
showing, which were shot in November and December; others, again, killed in August 
and the beginning of September, have nearly assumed their fully adult plumage, 
though the black feathers of the upper surface are broadly edged with pale brown. 
From the state of the plumage of these birds it would seem that they were in very 
rapid moult when they were killed. 
Birds of this species were observed at Duefias to be common in July, and it is therefore 
more than probable that they were birds that bred in the neighbourhood and their 
young broods; but we never observed their nests. As regards the peculiarities of the 
moulting-periods of this species generally, it may be that birds reared in the highlands 
of Guatemala moult at a different season from those which migrate northwards; but 
this is only a suggestion, for the point requires further investigation. 
The nest is usually formed of long flexible grasses, which are dexterously woven 
together ; the depth does not exceed three inches, but this depends to some extent on 
the stability of the branches of the tree to which they are attached. The eggs are pale 
bluish white, blotched with pale purple, and splashed at the larger end with markings 
of dark purple-brown. 
BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. I., April 1887. 09 
