All lights reserved]. [May, 1908. 



BIRD NOTES: 



THE 



JOURNAL OF THE FOREIGN BIRD CLUB. 



Gbe fellow Ibangnest. 



{Icterus xanthomis). 

 By Wesley T. Page, F.Z.S. 



This bird was first introduced to the London Zoo by our 

 esteemed member Mr. E. W. Harper, who presented either one 

 or two specimens, one being still alive, and a very gorgeous 

 specimen indeed, and was looking very fit on the occasion or my 

 last visit to the Gardens. Last year Mr. Harper brought over 

 another specimen, which he very kindly presented to me in July 

 last : to my very great regret it suddenly died on January 30th 

 last. Its death was unaccountable till I opened the body, when 

 the signs pointed to long standing liver trouble, that organ being 

 very much enlarged. This was the more disappointing, being 

 totally unexpected, for it had been looking very fit the whole 

 time it had been in my possession, and the first intimation of 

 anything wrong was picking up the bod)'. It was immature 

 when it reached me, and a lovely creature to the eye, and was 

 nearly in mature plumage when its unexpected decease occurred. 



Adult male: Of slender and graceful form, slightly smaller 

 than the Common Hangnest, and the hues of its plumage very 

 intense and effulgent. Upper parts rich yellow, washed with 

 olivaceous on the interscapulium ; lores, wings, and middle of 

 throat velvety black ; lesser wing-coverts yellow, lightly washed 

 with green ; the greater wing-coverts, secondaries and primaries 

 are narrowly margined with white, these markings being very 

 variable, (comparing three skins sent me by a collector from 

 British Guiana, all are distinctly marked with white, but vary 

 much one from the other in the width of the white margins to 

 the wing feathers, all in this respect differing materially from the 

 type) ; under parts, with the exception of the throat, intense 



