ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 193 



tame aiiJ laiuiliar. One tliat lie kept through llie winter, wlien two months 

 old whistled witii great clearness and vivacity. 



All tlie nests of this species that I have seen from Georgia, Florida, 

 Louisiana, or Texas, have no lining, but are wholly made of one material, 

 a flexible kind of reed or gi-ass. 



The sociability of this species is one of its most inarked characteristics. 

 Audubon says that he has known no less than nine nests in the same en- 

 closure, and all the birds living together in great harmony. 



A nest of this bird, taken in Berlin, Conn., by Mr. Brandigee, has a diam- 

 eter and a height of four incites. Its cavity is three inches in depth, and varies 

 from tliree to three and a half in diameter, being widest at the centre, or 

 half-way between the top and the base. It is entirely homogeneous, having 

 been elaborately and skilfully wo^■en of long green blades of grass. The 

 inside is lined with animal wool, bits of yarn, and intermingled with a 

 wooly substance of entirely vegetable origin. It was built from the extrem- 

 ity of the branch of an apple-tree. 



An egg of this species, from Washington, measures .8.5 of an inch in 

 length by .62 in breadth. The ground is a pale bluish-white, blotched with 

 a pale purple, and dashed, at the larger end, with a few deep markings of 

 dark imrplisii-brown. An egg from New Mexico is similar, but measures 

 .79 of an inch liy .54. Both are oblong oval, and pointed at one end. 



Icterus cucullatus, Swaixson. 



HOODED OEIOLE. 



Ictent.1 ■ciicullalus, Swainsox, Philos. Mag. 1, 1827, 436. — L.^wren'ce, Ann. N. Y. Lye. 

 V, May, 1851, 116 (lirst introduced into fauna of United States). — C.l.ssi.v, 111. I, ii, 

 1853, 42, pi. viii. — CooPKR, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 275. — BAinD, IMrds N. Am. 1858, 

 546. Pcndidmus cuaiUatus, Bo.N. Con.sp. 1850, 433. — Ca.ss. Pr. 1867, 60. 



Sp. Char. Both mandibles much curved. Tail much graduated. Wings, a rather 

 nai-row band across the back, tail, and a patch starting as a narrow frontal band, involving 

 the eyes, anterior half of cheek, chin, and throat, and ending as a rounded patch on tlie 

 nppcr part of breast, black. Rest of body orange-yellow. Two bands on the wing and 

 the edges of the quills wliite. Female without the black patch of the throat; the upper 

 parts generally yellowish-green, brown on tlie bark, beneath yellowish. Lengtii, 7.50; 

 wing, 3.2.5. 



IIab Valley of Lower Rio Grande, soutliward ; Tucson, Arizona (Dh. Palmkh); 

 Lower Califoi-nia, Cordova (Scr.. 185G, 300); Guatemala? (ScL. Ibis I, 20); Cuba? 

 (Lawr. Ann. VII, 18G0, 207); San Bernardino, California (Cooper, P. Cal., etc. 1861, 

 122) ; Vera Cruz hot region (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553) ; Mazatlan. 



The orange varies greatly in tint and intensity with the individual; 

 sometimes it is deep orange-red ; often clear dull yellow, but more frequently 

 of an oily orange. 



This species is closely allied to the /. aurucajjiUus of South America, but 



VOL. II. 25 



