BIKDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 301 



more or less edged with white at base,^ the hiteral reetrices more or 

 less broadly maroined at tip with whitish; i-est of phimage, inchiding 

 lesser and middle wing-coverts, rich lemon or cadmium yellow, bright- 

 est and clearest on heod, neck, and under parts (sometimes tinged with 

 orange on head, neck, and chest), the back and scapulars usually slightly 

 tinged with olive, and occasionally with a few narrow streaks of black;^ 

 bill black with basal portion of mandil)le l>luish gray (pale grayish 

 blue in life?); legs and feet grayish dusky or horn color (bluish gray 

 in life?). 



Ir/)mat'ure {second year?). — Similar to adults, but wings grayish dusky 

 instead of black, with pale grayish edgings; lesser wing-coverts black- 

 ish centrally, margined with yellowish olive-green or olive-yellow; 

 middle coverts blackish ])asally, tipped with light yellow; tail yellow- 

 ish olive-green or grayish dusky (or the two colors mixed); yellowish of 

 upper parts more decidedly inclining to olive-green, and that of head, 

 neck, and under parts less pure or intense than in adults. 



Young [first plumage). — Above j^ellowish olive-green, more yellow- 

 ish on pileum, hindneck, and lower rump; beneath, including malar 

 region, chin, and entire throat lemon yellow, more or less tinged with 

 oliv3-green, especialh' on sides and flanks; wings gra3'ish dusky, the 

 middle coverts broadly tipped with olive-yellow; greater coverts 

 tipped with white or pale yellowish and edged with olive-gray; remiges 

 edged with light grayish, most broadly on tertials; tail yellowish 

 olive-green, the middle rectrices darker. 



Adult male.— hQxxgth (skins), 191.8-205.7 (196.1); wing, 87.6-94.5 

 (91.2); tail, 83.3-90.7 {^i^.-^)\ culmen, from base, 19.8-25.4 (22.4); 

 depth of bill at base, 10.2-10.4 (10.2); tarsus, 25.1-28.5 (26.4); mid- 

 dle toe, 17.5-19.6 (18.3).^ 



Adult female.— IjQwgth (skins), 181.6-188 (185.2); wing, 82.6-87.1 

 (86.1); tail, 76.5-84.3 (81); culmen, from base, 20.6-24.1 (22.1); depth 



^This white edging at base of longer primaries is sometimes so much reduced as to 

 be practically hidden by the primary coverts, this being the case in all specimens 

 examined from Trinidad (six in number) and in all those seen from Venezuela (except 

 one), Guiana, and Brazil; again it may form a conspicuous patch, extending for half 

 an inch or more beyond the tips of the primary coverts, this being the case in the 

 three specimens examined from Santa Marta, Colombia. Whether Colombian birds 

 can be separated by this character can only be determined by examination of a much 

 larger series of specimens. 



^Only three specimens in a series of twenty-five have any streaks on the ])ack; 

 these are all adults — one of them being from Trinidad, one from Demerara, Brit- 

 ish Guiana, the third of unknown locality; the last has the lesser and middle wing- 

 coverts wholly pure yellow, but the other two have these feathers, especially the 

 middle coverts, black at the base, and thus correspond with I. dubusi [Icterus 

 xanOiornus var. a. dubusi Dubois), wliich I believe to be merely an individual varia- 

 tion of the present species. 



* Seven specimens. 



