AUDUBON'S BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE 211 



George B. Seimett (1878) says: "This large Oriole cannot be said 

 to be very abundant on the Rio Grande, although it is by no means 

 rare. I think it is by far more retiring in its habits than any other of 

 the family. If I were to go in search of it I should seek dense woods, 

 near an opening, with plenty of undergrowth, where the Rio Grande 

 Jay loves to dwell." 



As all other naturalists who have visited this fascinating region 

 along the lower Rio Grande have found this handsome, black-headed 

 oriole far from abundant and not conspicuous among the many in- 

 teresting Mexican species that there extend their ranges into the 

 United States, it is not strange that we saw very few when I visited 

 Brownsville in 1923. What few we saw were in the dense forests 

 along the resacas, or stagnant water courses, the former beds of 

 streams, or in other wooded regions; these usually contained large 

 specimens of mesquite, hackberry, ebony, huisache, and a few palms, 

 with a heavy undergrowth of shrubs, small trees, persimmons, 

 granjenas, coffeebeans, and bush morning-glories. 



At early morning and again after sunset, these woods resounded 

 with the weird chorus of loud screams from the chachalacas; all day 

 long the white-winged and white-fronted doves filled the air with their 

 tiresome cooing; and the noisy Derby flycatchers often proclaimed 

 their presence with loud, clamorous notes from the treetops; but we 

 did not hear, or failed to recognize, the song of Audubon's oriole. 

 Frequent glimpses were had of the brilliant green jay and the lovely 

 little Texas kingfisher, but the oriole kept mostly hidden in the 

 foliage. 



Our black-headed oriole, as it was formerly called, is a northern 

 race of a Mexican species, which ranges from the lower Rio Grande 

 Valley southward into Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon in Mexico. 

 The t} T pe race (A. g. graduacauda) ranges over the southern portions 

 of the Mexican plateau; it is a smaller bird, with the bill much 

 stouter, shorter, and the culmen more curved; the black of the head 

 and neck is more extensive; there is no white in the wings, and the 

 middle coverts are black instead of yellow; and the tail is entirely 

 black. In our bird the outer edges of the wing quills are edged with 

 white, broadly so on the innermost secondaries, and the greater 

 wing coverts are usually edged with white near the tips; the outer 

 tail feathers, also, are more or less edged and tipped with white. 



Nesting. — Sennett (1879) was the first to discover the nests and 

 collect authentic eggs of Audubon's oriole, about which he writes: 

 "This year I was fortunate in obtaining, within our limits, nests 

 and eggs of this large Oriole. Two incomplete sets were found early 

 in May, which enable me to identify a complete set of four obtained 

 last year. The latter set was taken at Hidalgo, Texas; the two former, 



