176 OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 



YELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 



{Icterus icteroccphalus, Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 26. pi. 4. [male], fig. 



2. [female]. Philad. Museum, No. 1528, 1529.) 



Sp. Charact. — Black ; head, neck, and breast yellow-orange ; with 

 a white spot on the wing. — Female and young dark brown ; 

 wings without spots ; throat whitish ; also a rounded yellow patch 

 on the breast. 



The Yellow-headed Blackbird or Troopial, though 

 long known as an inhabitant of South America, was only 

 recently added to the Fauna of the United States by 

 JVIajor Long's expedition. They were seen in great 

 numbers near the banks of the River Platte, around the 

 villages of the Pawnees, about the middle of May ; and 

 the different sexes were sometimes observed associated in 

 separate flocks, as the breeding season had not yet proba- 

 bly commenced. The range of this fine species is, ap- 

 parently, from Cayenne, in tropical America, to the banks 

 of the river Missouri ; though I have never seen them 

 near that river in an excursion of 1600 miles. At all 

 events, its visits are yet wholly confined to the west side 

 of the Mississippi, beyond which, not even a straggler 

 has yet been seen. They are known to assemble in dense 

 flocks, and in all their movements, aerial evolutions, and 

 predatory character, appear as the counterpart of their 

 Red-winged relatives. They are also seen to frequent 

 the ground in search of food, in the manner of the Cow- 

 Bunting, or Troopial. In the spring season they wage 

 war upon the insect tribes and their larvae, like the Red- 

 wings, but in autumn they principally depend, doubt- 

 less, on the seeds of vegetables. At Demerara, Water- 

 ton observed them in flocks, and, as might have been 

 suspected from their habits, they were very greedy after 



