VOL. XVIII, PP. 167-170 JUNE 29, 1905 



PROCEEDINGS 



OK THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



WHAT IS ICTERUS GUALANENSIS UNDERWOOD ? 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Being anxious to learn the real affinities of Icterus gualancnsis 

 Underwood, E. AV. Nelson and I sent to G. S. Miller, Jr., 

 while he was in the British Museum last spring, examples of 

 Icle.ru* f/fmu(Hi and /. mdanocephalus in various stages of plumage, 

 and asked him to compare them critically with Underwood's 

 type preserved in that great institution. Miller promptly re 

 turned us a long account of the type together with the result of 

 his comparison and from these it appears that /. gualanensis is 

 either a distinct and very local species or rather more probably 

 one of those strange abnormalities that occasionally occur among 

 birds. 



The whole case may be briefly summed up as follows : Icfcrti* 

 fjufdanntxix was described by Underwood from an adult specimen 

 collected by himself at Gualan, Guatemala (Bull. Brit. Orn. 

 Club, No. LV, p. LIX, June 30, 1898). It proves on comparison 

 of a large 11 amount of material (by Miller) to be of the same shade 

 of yellow cadmium yellow as I. girauclii, thus differing from 

 the only other species it needs comparison with I. melanoce- 

 fhcdu* which has the yellow of upperparts dull saffron or wax 

 yellow and the underparts lemon or gamboge. It exactly 

 matches adult examples of I. gimudii in all other respects, as 

 well as color, except in having the black of the head (which 



29 PROC. BIOL. Soc. WASH., VOL. XVIII, 1905. (167) 



