THE BULLOCK ORIOLE. 49 



No. 17. 

 BULLOCK'S ORIOLE. 



A. O. U. No. 508. Icterus bullockii (Swainson). 



Description. — Adult mule: Black, white, and orange; bill, lore, a line thru 

 eye, and throat (narrowly) jet black; pileuni, back, scapulars, lesser wing-coverts, 

 primary coverts, and tertials chiefly black, or with a little yellowish skirnng; 

 rcmiges black edged with white ; middle and greater coverts continuous with 

 edging of tertials and secondaries, white, forming a large patch ; tail chiefly yellow 

 but central pair of rectrices black terminally, and remaining pairs tipped with 

 blackish; remaining plumage, including supraloral areas continuous with sr.per- 

 ciliaries, orange yellow, most intense on sides of throat and chest, shading thru 

 cadmium on breast to chrome on rump, tail-coverts, etc. In young adults the 

 orange is less intense and, encroaches upon the black of forehead, hind-neck, etc., 

 altho the tail is more e.xtensively black. Adult female: Above drab-gray, clearest 

 on rump and upper tail-coverts; wings fuscous with whitish edging; pattern of 

 white in coverts of male retained but much reduced in area; tail nearly uniform 

 dusky chrome ; underparts in general sordid white ; chin and lores white ; forehead, 

 superciliary, (indistinct), cheeks, hind-neck and chest more' or less tinged with 

 chrome yellow. Young males resemble the female but soon gain in intensity of 

 yellow on the foreparts, gradually acquiring adult black along median line of 

 throat and in streaks on pileum. Length of adult male about 8.25 (209.5) '' 

 wing 3.89 (99); tail 3.07 (78); bill .Jt, (18.5); tarsus .98 (25). Female a 

 little smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Chewink size ; black, white, and orange of male dis- 

 tinctive ; slender blackish bill of female strongly contrasting with the heavy light- 

 colored bill of female Western Tanager with which alone it is likely to be confused 

 by the novice. General coloration of female ashy or drab rather than olivaceous, 

 yellow of tail contrasting with whitish or light drab of tail-coverts. 



Nesting. — Nest: a pouch of cunningly interwoven grasses, vegetable fibers, 

 string, etc., 5 to 9 inches deep and lashed by brim to branches of deciduous tree. 

 Eggs: usually 5, smoky white as to ground color, sometimes tinged with pale 

 Ijlne, more rarely with faint claret, spotted, streaked and elaborately scrawled with 

 ])urplish black or dark sepia, chiefly about larger end. Elongate ovate; av. size 

 .94 X .63 (23.9 X 16). Season: May 20-June 15; one brood. 



General Range. — Western LTnited States, southern British Provinces and 

 plateau of Mexico; breeding north to southern British Columbia, Alberta and 

 southern Assiniboia east to eastern border of Great Plains in South Dakota, 

 Nebraska, etc., south to northern IMexico ; in winter south to central Mexico. 



Range in Washington. — Regular summer resident in eastern Washington 

 thruout settled sections and along water courses ; rare or casual west of Cascades. 



Migrations. — Spring: Yakima County, May 2, 1900; ]Moses Lake, May 15, 

 1906; Chelan, May 21, 1896. 



