HAiXaXESTS. 



region desciil>ed as black, probably greyish-blue in life ; 

 anterior edge of chce'ks, chin, throat, and centre of 

 breast black; bill sliinins; bhick, the lower mandible 

 with a basal patch of pale blue-grey ; feet bluish-flesli- 

 Ci)loure<I ; irides yellowish-white or \>a\e yellow. Female 

 smaller and with sJiortcr bill. Hab., "Caribbean coast 

 (listrict (.f northern Soutli America, from Cayenne to 

 l^olombia, Trinidad, and Margarita Island, Isthmus of 

 Panama (?)." (Ridgway.) 



llidgway separates an insular form as a sub-species 

 under the name of J. riiranociiiif. differing in its longer 



bill, the vouns; 



i-h paler than that of /. jdiilhor 



lil: AZIIJAN H A.NGNEST. 



(typicus). Hab., Islands of Curagao, Bonaire, and 

 Aruba. 



Burmeister (" Systematisi-he Uebersicht." Vol. Ill , 

 p. 270) says that this species " lives upon, bu.shv ground, 

 but not exactly in deep primseval forest : it is seen 

 singly or in pairs at the breeding-season, and builds a 

 long, openly woven purse-shaped nest uf crass stalks, 

 which is suspended freely from the twigs in the bush. 

 The eggs are pale bluish-white, tolerably thickly .spotted 

 with red-brown, with somewhat darker spots at the 

 blunt end." 



Of the form from Curasao Dr. Hartert says (The Ihh 

 1893. pp. 295. 296) : — " The specimens from Cura<^o 

 all agree, but two males from Aruba have the bills 

 shorter and stronger, and also the yellow colour brighter 

 and more tinged with orange." 



" It is, I think, very interesting that the birds Irom 

 Aruba, the island nearest to the continent, agree better 

 with the continental form than those from Cura9ao, 

 The bird is equally common on all three islands, but 

 only where it finds sufficient trees in which to buUd its 

 long, hanging nest. I have not procured skins from 

 Bonaire, but the birds there agree with tho.^e from 

 Curasao. I got an egg on the 22nd of July in Bonaire. 

 The L'olour is of a pale bluish-white, sparingly covered 

 with long and fine deeper-lying cinereous hair-lines and 

 overlaid patches and lines, like Ai-abian letters, of a 

 deep purplish-brown, more frequent on the thicker end. 

 It uieasiu-es 0.93in. by 0.67in., and the weight of it is 

 250 milligra.rames. " The bird is sometimes kept in 

 captivity, but is not much appreciated. Its piping 

 notes are less clear than tho.se of Jr/ervs viilga/-i.-<. and 

 they produce many screeching and mewing sounds." 



Ru£s says that this is one cf the very rarest of iui- 

 ]]orted birds ; he only knows of a specimen which 

 rea<?hed the Ara'Sterdam Gardens in 1882 ; but in 1906 

 Mr. E. W. Harper brought home and presented a speci- 

 men to the London Zoological Gardens, and doubtless 

 others will come from time to time. 



Common Hangnest {Icterus vulgaris). 

 Brilliant cadmium-yellow, deepest and brightest on 

 the breast; entire head, neck, elongated throat feathers 

 extending over middJe of fore-chest, a broad belt be- 

 tween the shoulders, wings and tail black ; lesser wing- 

 coverts yellow : a broad, longitudinal white belt 

 (slightly .vellowish in old Ijirds), including the'median 

 coverts, inner greater 

 coverts, and broad 

 borders to inner 

 secondaries ; orbital 

 naked skin, forming 

 an imperfect fuei- 

 form zone, enclosing 

 the eye. peari or blue- 

 grey ; bill black, with 

 a large whitish ash 

 patch at base of lower 

 mandible ; feet pearl- 

 gi-ey, slightly yel- 

 lowish at proxinial end 

 of tarso-metatai'siis ; 

 irides pale or bone- 

 yellow. Female 

 slightly smaller, with 

 cansiderablv shorteT 

 bill. Hab", "Coast- 

 region of Oolombia and 

 Venezuela and Trini- 

 dad." (Sclater.) '"Mar- 

 garita and Curasao. 

 Introduced intoi West 

 Thomas, Porto Rico, and 



Indian Islands of St 

 Jamaica." (Ridgwa.v.) 



In 1907 I separated a form as a sub-species under the 

 name of /. limoneu-s, believing it to be that indicated 

 by Herr Peters as occuiring in the island of C'ura9ao, 

 on the ground of its more slender outline, its pale 

 colouring, the naked orbital marking reduced to a small 

 triangle behind the eye, and the outer tail-feathers 

 having white external margins ; its songs are many 

 :ind varied, instead of uniform and monotonous: a 

 good coloured plate was published with my article (The 

 Ariniltiiral Magazine, New Series, Vol. V., pp. 225-230i. 

 I>ater the pale colouring proved to be a sign of youth, 

 but all other characters persist. 



In the ''Journal fiir Ornithologie," 1892, Peters says 



