YELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 169 



feet being blackish ; the irides are dark brown. The general color is 

 uniform dark brown, a shade lighter on the margin of each feather. 

 The frontlet is grayish-ferruginous, as well as a line over the eye con- 

 fluent on the auricles with a broad line of the same color passing beneath 

 the eye, including a blackish space varied with grayish. An abbreviated 

 blackish line proceeds from each side of the lower mandible ; the chin 

 and throat are whitish ; on the breast is a large rounded patch, of a 

 pretty vivid yellow, occupying nearly all its surface, and extending a 

 little on the neck. On the lower part of the breast, and beginning of 

 the belly, the feathers are skirted with white. The form of the wings 

 and tail is the same as in the male ; the wings are immaculate. 



The young of this species are very similar to the female, the young 

 male gradually changing to the rich adult covering. 



The Yellow-headed Troopials assemble in dense flocks, which, in all 

 their varied movements and evolutions, present appearances similar to 

 those of the Red-winged, which have been so well described by Wilson. 

 They are much on the ground, like the Cow Troopial (Cow Bunting of 

 Wilson) ; on dissection, their stomachs have been found filled with frag- 

 ments of small insects, which seem to constitute their chief food, though 

 doubtless they also feed on vegetable substances. Their notes resemble 

 those of the Red-winged Troopial, but are more musical. The range 

 of the Yellow-headed Troopial is very extensive, as it is found from 

 Cayenne to the river Missouri ; although it passes far north in the 

 western region, yet it does not visit the settled parts of the United 

 States. 



The fine specimens represented in our plate were killed near the 

 Pawnee villages, on the river Platte, where they were seen in great 

 numbers about the middle of May. The males and females Avere some- 

 times observed in separate flocks. 



We adopt the genus Icterus, nearly as it was established by Brisson, 

 and accepted by Daudin and Temminck. Authors have variously esti- 

 mated this genus both in regard to its denomination and limits. One 

 of Wilson's most important nomenclatural errors, consisted in placing 

 one of the species under the genus Sturnus, Avith which it has but little 

 similarity, if we except some of its habits, and particularly its grega- 

 rious disposition. Linnd considered these birds as Orioli, in which he 

 was followed by Gmelin and Latham, notwithstanding the remarkable 

 difference existing between them and the Oriolus galhula of Europe, the 

 type of that genus. Illiger, and some other naturalists, considering 

 that bird a Coracias, appropriated the name of Oriolus to our Icterus, 

 and separated from it the largest species, which he called Cassici. 

 Linnd had declared all generic names previously given to arts, diseases, 

 &c., to be inadmissible in natural history ; Illiger, on that principle, 

 altogether rejected the name Icterus, as being preoccupied by a disease. 



