316 THE GENUS ICTERIA 



the differences of musical critics are as hard to reconcile in some 

 cases as in certain others with which we are all familiar ; but 

 I have no doubt the bird sings very well indeed. 



Many nests of this bird have come to the notice of natural- 

 ists. They are usually built on the ground in close covert, 

 though said to be sometimes placed in a bush a foot or so high — 

 in one instance, given by Nuttall, "near the ground, in the dead 

 mossy limbs of a fallen oak, and further partly hidden by a long 

 tuft of Usnea^K The shape differs much according to the situ- 

 ation, the ground-built specimens being quite broad and flattish, 

 not more than half as high as wide, with a shallow cavity, and 

 quite uniformly thick walls. Those placed in bushes were more 

 cup-like. Some have been described as consisting almost en- 

 tirely of mosses ; others, among them one 1 examined, are built of 

 various soft, fibrous materials, especially bark-strips and frayed- 

 out plant-stems, with finegrasses, mostly circularly arranged, and 

 lined with slender rootlets. The eggs, four or five in number, 

 are white, doubtless with a flesh-tint when fresh, and are vari- 

 ously blotched, in a wholly irregular manner, with very dark 

 brown, almost blackish ; and further spotted and smirched with 

 several shades of lighter, more reddish-brown, together with the 

 usual shell-markings of undefinable neutral tint. Some of the 

 blotches, especially the darker ones, are remarkably large ; and 

 the whole aspect of the egg is different from that usually seen 

 in this family, where fine speckling with reddish is the rule. 

 The eggs I describe were collected by Mr. Kidgway in Nevada, 

 and I presume there is no question of their identification. The 

 extremes measure 0.70x0.50 and 0.65x0.52. As the bird ranges 

 so widely in the breeding season, the period of laying must vary; 

 but June appears to be the usual time. We are not informed 

 whether more than one brood may be reared by the same pair 

 during a summer. Fully fledged birds have been seen by the 

 21st of July. 



Genus ICTERIA Vieillot 



IctePla,Fj>j'H. OAS. i. 1807, pp. iii. and85. (Tly\>^ Musdca.pa viridis Gm.) 

 Jcteria, Cab. MH. i. 1850, C3, and some other German writers. 

 Feterla, Moy, Proo. Pliila. Acad. 1853, 309. (Typographical error.) 



Chars. — Bill stout, high at tbe base (higher than broad at 

 nostrils), thence compressed; unnotched, unbristled, with much 

 curved culmen and commissure. Frontal feathers reaching the 

 nostrils, which are subcircular and scaled. Wings much 

 rounded, shorter or not longer than the graduated tail. Tarsus 



