222 KULLKTIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



lower SasTcatchewan, very abundant).— Dwigiit, Auk, x, 1893, 10 (Prince 

 Edward I., breeding).— Todd, Auk, x, 1898, 39 (Indiana and Clearfield 

 counties, w. Pennsylvania, breeding). — Bkimlky, Auk, x, 1893,242 (Bun- 

 combe Co., North Carolina, Mar. 16; Raleigh, Nov. 26).— De.vcon, Biol. 

 Rev. Ontario, i, 1894,69 (Prince Albert, Northwest Territory, very aht., 

 breeding; descr. nest and eggs).— Tuoknk, Auk, xii, 1895, 216 (Fort Keogh, 

 Montana, breeding). — Piers, Trans. Nova Scot. Inst. Sci., ser. 2, i, 1895, 407 

 (Nova Scotia, rare). — Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii, 1895, 501, pi. 7, 

 tigs. 26, 27 (eggs).— Baily, Auk, xiii, 1896, 294 (Elk Co., w. Pennsylvania, 

 breeding). — Cooke, Birds Col., 1897, 95 (Colorado, summer resid. e. of 

 mts.). — Rives, Auk, xv, 1898, 135 (Spruce belt, AVest Virginia).— Beyer, 

 Proc, Louis. Soc. Nat. for 1897-99 (1900), 106 (breeding near Madisonville, 

 St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana). 



Qluiscaiua] quiscula :cneus Ridgway, Man. N. Am. Birds, 1887, 380. 



[Quiscalus versicolor] b. Subsp. xnea Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, 

 395, in list of specimens (Pembina, Dakota; Fort Dufferin, and Fort Simp- 

 son, Brit. America; "Arctic America"). 



Quiscalus qmscula (not Gracula quiscula I.,inn;eus) Brittaix and Cox, Auk, v, 

 1889, 117 (Restigouche Valley, New Brunswick). — Hatch, Birds Minnesota, 

 1892, 288.— Nehrling, Our Native Birds, etc., ii, 1896, 304, part, pi. 17, 

 fig. 6. 



Genus HOLOQUISCALUS Cassin. 



{?)Scaphi<Iirnts (not of Swainson, 1827) Swainsox, Fauna Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 

 App. 1,494. (Type, " Oriolus niger Anct. ," i. e., of Boddaert?)' 



Holoquiscalus Cassin, Proc.' Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., xviii, Dec, 1866, 404. (Type, 

 Cracula baritn Linnseus, = Sturnus jamaicensis Daudin?) 



Medium-sized or rather small semiterrestrial Icteridas with plicate 

 tail ^ (dec/idcdly shorter than wing and oraduated for much less than 

 one-third, usually less than one-fourth, its length), and with the median 

 palatal ridge beveled off anteriorly. 



Bill about as long as head, elongate-conical, with tip more or less 

 decurved, its depth atba.se much less than one-half the exposed culmen, 

 little if any more (usually slightly less) than half the distance from 

 nostril to tip of maxilla, its basal width a little less; culmen nearly 

 straight to near tip, where more or less strongh' decurved, the basal 

 portion sometimes slightly elevated and arched; the culmen ridged, 

 the ridge narrow but rounded; gonys nearl}^ straight, slightly but 

 decidedlj^ shorter than maxilla from nostril; maxillary tomium more 



' The characters given apply only in part to tliis genus. This citation of Sraphidu- 

 rus Swainson is placed by Sclater (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, p. 329) under Cas- 

 sidix, but while the description of the bill in Swainson's diagnosis applies well 

 enough to Cassidix, the phrase "tail graduated, boat-shaped," certainly does not, but 

 evidently does to a member of the Quiscaline grou]). 



'■'In If. gnndlacliii, at least, the tail is said to be "permanently keeled; that is, is 

 wedge-shaped even when the bird is at rest. In flying it is expanded vertically, and 

 measures 4 to 5 inches in depth at the tip. This gives them a most ludicrous ajjpear- 

 ance, which is heightened by their fluttering, labored flight. Indeed, when on the 

 wing they resendjle miniature flying machines." (Cliapman, Bull. Am. Mus., iv, 

 1892, p. 306.) 



