WESTERN SCARLET-HEADED ORIOLE 237 



ICTERUS PUSTULATUS MICRO STICTUS Griscom 



Western Scarlet-Headed Oriole 

 HABITS 



The scarlet-headed oriole is the most brilliantly colored of any 

 North American oriole that the writer has seen; except for the black 

 throat, the head and neck of the adult male glow with intense orange, 

 sometimes even "flame scarlet," the back is yellow streaked with 

 black, the rump and under parts are rich orange, the tail is black, 

 and the black wings are marked with a broad white bar and edgings; 

 altogether it is a gorgeous bird. The species ranges widely in western 

 and southern Mexico. The subspecies under discussion ranges from 

 Jalisco to Chihuahua and Sonora, in Mexico, and has been taken as 

 a straggler in San Diego County, Calif. Ludlow Griscom (1934) 

 describes this race as "differing from typical pustulatus (Wagler) in 

 having the spotting on the back greatly decreased in adult males 

 small narrow lance-ovate ones instead of large round spots; this 

 decrease in spotting equally evident in females, which are so small 

 as to be very obscure." 



Laurence M. Huey (1931) describes the capture of the record speci- 

 men as follows: "On May 1, 1931, a male Scarlet-headed Oriole 

 (Icterus pustulatus), in first year plumage, was collected at Murray 

 Dam, near La Mesa, San Diego County, California, by Frank 

 F. Gander, a member of the staff of the San Diego Natural History 

 Museum. * * * 



"Questioning the collector regarding the capture of this unusual 

 migrant, the writer was informed that the bird was uttering notes 

 not unlike those of Icterus bullocki [i] bullocki [i], which it was believed to 

 be, and that its position in the sycamore tree and manner of perching 

 were typical of that Oriole." 



George N. Lawrence (1874) quotes Col. A. J. Grayson on the 

 habits of the scarlet-headed oriole as follows: 



Of the numerous species of orioles inhabiting the Tropics, this one is the most 

 familiar about the locality of Mazatlan, and indeed all of Western Mexico. I 

 found it as far south as Tehuantepec, Guadalajara, Tepic, and other places, 

 where I always met with it as a well-known and common species. Its long 

 pensile nest, its sprighly little song, and more especially the gay plumage of a 

 fully adult male, renders it a conspicuous bird among the feathered songsters 

 of its native woods. 



The nests are generally suspended from a tough, slender branch or recumbent 

 twig of the acacia tree, protected from the intense rays of the sun by the beautiful 

 canopy of its fringed foliaged branches. Such a tree as the tamarind acacia is 

 often selected, and one or two nests are sometimes seen swaying in the breeze, 

 beneath the generous shade of this perennial beauty of the forest. The nest is 

 composed of the thread-like or elastic fibres of the maguey plant. I have seen 



