PASSERINE. 297 



Some of them form a single mass of a great number of individual 

 nests, which contains several distinct apartments. Such is 



Loxia socia. Lath.; Paters. Voy. pi. xix. (The Republican.) 

 An olive brown; yellowish beneath; head and quills brown or 

 blackish. 

 Among those of the western continent, we may remark, 



Oriolus 7iiger, Or. oryzivorus, Corvus siirinamensis , Gm.; Mau- 

 geurde riz; Cassiqice noir, Sec; Enl. 534; Brown, 111. X; Wils. Ill, 

 xxi, 4, which, in immense flocks, devastates the fields of seve- 

 ral of the warmer portions of America. Its colour is a changea- 

 ble black, reflecting all the magnificent lints of burnishedsteel.(l) 



Daud. An. Mus. I, p. 148, pi. x, or Malimbe huppe, Vieill. Ois. ch. 42 and 43 ; 

 the Malimbe orange. Id. 44 ; Malimbe a gorge noir, Id. 45 ; the Tiss. a front d'or, 

 {Ploc. aurifrons. Tern., Col. 175, 176); the Baglafecht [Lax. abyssinica); the 

 Nelicourvi [Lax. pensilis), Sonn. Voy. II, pi. cixj the Worabee {Fring. abyssinica, 

 Gm.), Vieill. Ois. 28; Fring. erythrocepJiala, Gm., Vieill. lb., 28. We mig-ht dis- 

 tinguish the Ploc. aledo, Tem. Col., 446, which has an inflation at the base of the 

 beak. 



(1) Nomenclators have not yet succeeded in putting in order the black birds 

 of America more or less nearly allied to the Cassici, for the want of sufficiently 

 detailed descriptions. AVe think it right to indicate the principal ones here, and 

 at the same time to point out such of their synonymes as appear to be the most 

 clearly ascertained. 



1. The Cassique noir d mantelet, as above. 



2. The bird mentioned above, well drawn, but painted without its reflected 

 tints, Enl. 534, and quoted under Oriolus niger. The Oriolus ludovicianiis, Enl. 

 646, is only an albino variety of the same. It is evidently the Corvus surinamensis. 

 Brown, III, pi. x. The Little Choucas of Jamaica, Sloane, Jam. II, 299, pi. cclvii, 

 1, quoted by Pennant as Gracula barita and as quiscala, is this same bird again. 

 On the other hand, it is impossible to doubt that Latham had it before him when 

 he described his Oriolus oryzivorus. 



3. The true Carouge noir, with pui-ple changes, beak rather short, but very 

 straight, given as a Tanager, Enl. 710, and from which the Tan. bonariensis has 

 been made; but this figure really represents the Oriolus minor. The fig. 2, Enl. 

 606, is given, but erroneously, for the female, which has a very different appear- 

 ance. 



4. A true Icterus of a deep black with violet reflections, sharp-pointed and some- 

 what arcuated beak, whose tail is hollowed out like a boat. It is the Boat-tailed 

 Grakle of Penn. and Latham, which both those gentlemen consider as synonymous 

 with the Gracula barita, and yet it certainly is the bird of Catesb. pi. 12, of which 

 Lin. made his Gracula quiscala; but Catesby has given a bad drawing of the beak. 



5. A black bird with violet and green reflections, somewhat cuneiform, (etagee) 

 tail, and the beak of an Icterus, but more arcuated near tbe point, &c. 



N.B. The bird quoted from Wils., Ill, xxi, 4, is not a Ploceus. It is the Quis- 

 calus versicolor, Bonap-, or the Gracula quiscala, L. Am. Ed. 

 Vol. L 2 N 



