ICTERIA. 



229 



II^lh. Eastern province of United States ; rare north of Pennsylvania. 

 Mexico and Guatemala ? Not noted from West Indies. 



I am still much perplexed in reference to the distinctness of the 

 Mexican /. velasquezii from /. vu^ens. All the Chats I have seen 

 from localities south of the United States (four in the Smithsonian 

 collection) agree in having the bill lighter colored, the upper man- 

 dible brown with lighter lower edge, the lower nearly whitish. All 

 have the sides and crissum tinged with brown. The size is rather 

 less than in virklis, the proportions about the same ; the tail if any- 

 thing shorter, not longer. In two specimens the bill is shorter, 

 higher, and the culmen more curved than in any vireus I have seen; 

 in one it is about the same, and in another (lo,601) it is longer and 

 more slender. The white maxillary patch is rather restricted. 



In no adult male specimens from the United States do I find the 

 bill other than intense black, and the crissum pure white. The 

 flanks are a little brownish, but less so than in Mexican skins. A 

 female from Carlisle, Pa., however (2,312; May), has the crissum 

 and flanks precisely as in southern specimens ; the bill, also, is nearly 

 as light colored. 



/. longlcauda has the tail much longer, and the upper parts much 

 grayer. The mandibular white extends farther back, as does the 

 white at the posterior corner of the eye. Young birds from Cape 

 St. Lucas differ from adults in the light-colored bill, and brownish 

 wash on the flanks and crissum ; but the back, instead of being pure 

 olive green, has a brownish faded appearance. 



Cabanis (Journal, 1860, 403), in summarily uniting all described 

 Icteria into one species, entirely overlooks the great difference in 

 the length of the tail of eastern and western specimens. 



Icteria auricolUs, of Licht., douljtless refers to /. velasquezii. 



Specimens of this species are in the Smithsonian museum from 

 all parts of the United States east of the valleys of the lower Mis- 

 souri, as far west as Fort Riley and Neosho Falls, Kansas, and 

 south of Cape May and Carlisle ; also — 



