200 TRANS. OP THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



The accounts of the Treasurer and Corresponding Secre- 

 tary, having been examined and found correct, were accepted 

 and approved. 



January 16, 1865. 

 The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



The Corresponding Secretary laid upon the table the Proc. 

 of the Amer. Antiquarian Society, Boston, 1864, from the 

 /Society. 



A communication was read from Prof. Henry Shimer, of 

 Mt. Carroll Seminary, Ills., dated January 2, 1865, in ivhich 

 he observes as follows : 



That, early in June, 1863, lie had obtained a specimen of Icterus, to 

 which he had given much study, and was inclined to think it a new spe- 

 cies ; yet knowing the great variety of plumage in many birds, and from 

 the want of access to a large museum and a complete library of ornitho- 

 logical works, he could not venture, without further advice, to pro- 

 nounce upon it. He could find no description answering to it in Baird's 

 Synopsis, or in other works within his reach. He would describe it as 

 follows : 



Form. — Bill attenuated, slightly decurved toward the top, shorter than 

 the skull. Basal outline of culmen straight for about half the length ; ele- 

 vated into a narrow ridge at the base ; compressed from middle to tip. 

 Commissure gently curving throughout the entire length, but very slight- 

 ly angulated at the base. Goneys more than half the culmen, slightly 

 decurved ; broader than high at the base. Nostrils oval, basal, lateral. 

 Wing longer than the tail. Second primary longest, the third slightly 

 Bhorter, the first equal to the fourth. Tail long ; much graduated. Great- 

 est difference of quills 0.65 inches. Tarsus longer than the head, and 

 Bhorter than the middle toe; strongly seutellate, with 8 plates before ; 

 plated behind. Feet and legs robust; claws strong, sharp, and much 

 curved ; lateral toes equal, reaching the middle of the central claw. Hind 

 claw heavier and more curved. 



Color. — Head above greenish olivaceous; rump a brighter greenish 

 yellow; back olivaceous brown, margined exteriorly with olivaceous, be- 

 neath paler; tips of the lateral feathers cinereous; shafts brown above, 

 grayish white beneath. Primaries brown, inclined to cinereous towards 

 the base of the inner , margined exteriorly with drab gray: wing- 

 coverts brown, terminal edges forming two bands of white. Inner sec- 

 ondaries broadly edged with white exteriorly. Wing beneath and axillae 

 yellowish white. Throat to breast velvet black ; cheeks buff yellow, en- 

 croaching upon and contracting the black of the throat in the middle. 

 Ceres dusky gray, a small black line around the front and below the eye ; 

 beneath this dusky, fading insensibly into the yellowish cheeks. The 

 black of the throat does not come up quite as high as the commissural 

 line ; breast all around and vent pale yellow, with a shade of greenish ; 

 belly paler; sides light olivaceous brown; shafts of primaries black Bill 

 above dark brown, black at tip ; beneath light blue at the base, becoming 

 darker to the tip. Legs blue; iris black. 



Measurements. — Length, 6.87 inch.; stretch of wings, 10.75; wing, 8.03; 



