458 ICTINIA—IMPEYAN 



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Icterus, haltimore, whose brightly contrasted black and orange have 

 conferred upon it the name it most commonly bears in North 

 America, those colours being, says Catesby {B. Carol, i. p. 48), the 

 tinctures of the armorial bearings of the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, 

 the original grantees of Maryland, but probably more correctly those 

 of their liveries. The most divergent form of Ideridx seems to be 

 Sturnella ^ (though Leistes comes near it in that respect), containing 

 some four or five species or local races, of which the Meadow-Lark, 

 S. magna or ludoviciana of North America, and its western ally /S. negleda 

 are the best known. These are birds which in aspect and habits 

 have considerable resemblance to the Alaudidse (Lark) of the Old 

 World, and a still greater outward likeness to the members of the 

 African and especially CafFrarian genus Macronyx (Kalkoentje), 

 usually referred to the MotaciUidse (Wagtail), though there can 

 be no affinity between them.^ Dolichonyx oryzivorus, the Bobolink 

 or Eice-bird, with its very Bunting-like bill, is not much less 

 aberrant. The genus Molobrus containing, among other species of 

 parasitic habits, the well-known Cowpen-bird (Cow-bird) of North 

 America, also belongs to this Family. The Ideridse are commonly 

 supposed to represent in the New World the Sturnidx (Starling) 

 of the Old ; but no clear affinity between them seems to have been 

 proved, while by several characters the former are clearly allied 

 to the Emherizidse (Bunting). 



ICTINIA, see Kite. 



IDLE JACK, a local name in the Cape Colony for Sphenoeacus 

 africanus (Grass-bird). 



ILEUM, part of the intestine (see Digestive System, p. 138) ; 

 but 



ILIUM, or OS ilei, the most dorsal and largest of the three bones 

 on each side of the Pelvis, which it connects with the sacral 

 vertebrse. 



IMBER- or IMMER-GOOSE, see Ember Goose. 



IMPENNES, Illiger's name in 1811 for a "Family" of Birds 

 consisting of the genus Aptenodi/tes, and since often employed as 

 that of the group containing the Penguins. 



IMPEYAN, mistakenly used by the ignorant, as though a sub- 

 stantive, for any species of Lophophorus, the first a nd b eet-known of 



^ Trupialis has been separated from Sturnella on verj' slight grounds. 



- It is impossible not to remark on the coincidence of this resemblance (so 

 striking that did the birds occur in the same area it would be set down to 

 Mimicry) with that afforded by the American genus Colaptcs (Flicker) and the 

 South-African Geocolaptes already mentioned {suprd, p. 260). 



