Vol. XVIII, pp. 167-170 June 29, 1905 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



WHAT IS ICTERUS GUALAXEXSIS UNDERWOOD? 

 BY OUTRAM BANGS. 



Being anxious to learn the real affinities of Icterus gwalanensis 

 Underwood, E. W. Xel^on and T sent to G. S. Miller, Jr., 

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

 IrtPrH.-< f/i mild a nud I. iiieI(i.vorephfiiii--< in various stages of plumage, 

 and asked liini to compare them critically with ITnderwood's 

 type preserved in that great institution, ^lillcr promptl.y re- 

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

 his comparison and from these it appears that /. f/ualanensis is 

 either a distinct and very local species or rather more prohably 

 one of those strange abnormalities that occasionally occur among 

 birds. 



The whole case may be Ijriefly summed up as follows : Ideriif< 

 p7t(il(iiirii'<i-s was described by Ihiderwood 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 amount of material (l)y Miller) to be of the same shade 

 of yellow — cadmium yellow — as /. (/lraii(J>i, thus differing from 

 the only other species it needs comparison with — /. melanoce- 

 phaliis — which has the j^ellow of upperparts dull saffron or wax 

 yellow and the underparts lemon or gamboge. It exactlj^ 

 matches adult examples of /. r/irniidii in all other respects, as 

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



29— Proc. Bioi.. Soc. Wash., Vol. XVIII, 1905. (167) 



