NESTING HABITS OF OROPENDOLA CHAPMAN 349 



Thus, one can more readily distinguish normal from exceptional 

 habits. While I hope that my observations have covered a long 

 enough period to reveal the more fundamental facts in the home 

 life of Zarhy^nchus^ it must be remembered that they relate to but 

 one colony of these birds. They should be regarded, therefore, 

 merely as the starting point for a further study of this species and 

 of other members of the oropenilola-cacique group. 



KELATlONKUirS 



ZarJiyncIius wayJeri is a member of the group* of icterine birds 

 known as oropendolas. * With the caciques * they are placed by 

 Sclater in a subfamily, Cassicinae, of tlie family Icteridae, a dis- 

 tinction not currently recognized.' 



So far as tlie records and my own experience" go, all these birds 

 nest in colonies, build pensile nests, and nest during the dry season. 

 The great age of these groups is indicated by the marked structural 

 dilTerences existing between certain of the genera which compose 

 them, and we may assume at least a corresponding age for those 

 nesting habits which they possess in conmion. 



Zarhynchus u'tf^/fW inhabits the humid tropical zone from southern 

 Mexico to western Ecuador. In Colombia it is known only in the 

 Colombian-Pacific fauna. Specimens from the northern part of this 

 range (Guatemala and probably northern Honduras northward) 

 average slightly smaller and are somewhat darker. They represent 

 the rai.e known as Zarhynchus wagJeri mexlcanus. Combining char- 

 acters of the most unlike members of the group, it is diilicult to say 

 to which Zarhynchus is most closely related. As with Clypeicterua 

 and Ocyalus the maxilla is expanded into a broad frontal shield cov- 

 ering the forehead ; the wings are even more pointed, the outer pri- 

 maries more incised than in the latter; it dilfers from both these 

 genera and agrees with the remaining members of the group in pos- 

 sessing occipital plumes, which are as highly developed as in Ostinops 

 decwinanus. In general color it is also nearest to that species and 

 this resemblance, in connection with the fact that the ranges of the 

 two species meet only in northwestern Colombia and in Panama, may 

 possess some significance. 



'Genera: Xarhf/nchus, Ocyalwt Clypeiclerun, OstinopH ami Qymnoatinopg. 



■This Is the Spanlsli name for the Old World oriole (Orlolun oriolut), which, like the 

 EoKlish name "oriole," has been applied to a N^w World bird. It Is based on the 

 Kuropran bird's gulden color and hnbit of bulldiuK a pendulous nest, but, so fur as the 

 color of the plumage Is concerned, is not strictly deHcrlptive of any New World species to 

 which It is applied. 



* Genera : C'acifu.>i and Caaniculug. 



»Cf. KIdKway, 1002, Hull. U.S.N.M., vol. 50. pf. II, p. 172. 



* Cadcva cela and OtUnopa decumanuK In Trinidad and Colombia; Oatinopa aalmoni in 

 Colombia ; Oymnijstinoiia monlezumae in M< xioo. 



