HANGNESTS. 



33 



Yellow-backkd Hangnesi [Icterus croconolus). 



Nearly resembling the preceding species, but the 

 <;rown of the head, excepting the foiehead and tlie 

 scapularies, bright orange. Hab., '" Guiana and Ama- 

 zonia to Ecuador aJKl interior of Brazil." (P. L. Sclater.) 



Mr. W. Goodfellcw {The Ibis, 1901, p. 478) says : " We 

 frequently saw pairs, but they seemed confined to the 

 edge of the fore.sds along the river banks and places 

 where bamboos grew. On the Coca, in June, I saw 

 three of their iieets in close proximity, suspended from 

 tlie tips of bamboos overhanging the water. The bare 

 .skin round the eyes ie dark elatyblue. Beautiful as 

 the colour of these biixis is in the skin, it is still more 

 beautiful in life. I noticed that our specimens faded 

 as soon as thev began to dry, and turned more yellow. 

 The Zaparo Indians called them ' Palandra pisco,' 

 which was not very distinctive, for they applied the 

 sam© name to other birds. It means Plantain-bii-d." 



That is all I have discovered respecting the wild life. 

 K.USS saye that the London Zoological Gardens possessed 

 this species in 1865; Emil Linden, one of the best- 

 known German aviculturists, also i^o.sseseed it, and in 

 1889 Mangelsdorff brought it home witli him from 

 Brazil 



Bl.vck-thboated H.tNGNEST {Iclcrus gularis). 



Orange-yellow; scapularies black; wings, excepting 

 leeser coverts, black, edged with white; tail, lores, 

 throat extending down to the breast and bill, black; 

 feet dark horn-grey ; irides pale yellow. Female yel- 

 low ; scapularies and tail olive ; wings brown with 

 whitish edges; throat black. Hab., "Southern 

 Mexico, Yucatan, British Honduras, and Guatemala." 

 (P. L. Sclater.) 



I have not discovered any field notes. Russ says it is 

 one of the rarest species in the German market; never- 

 theless since 1886 single examples are always being 

 imparted by the principal dealers. 



Black-spotted Hangnest (Icterus pecloralis). 



Briglit orange-yellow, redder on the head ; upper 

 back, scapulars, and wings, with the excejition of the 

 lesser and middle coverts, black ; outer borders of 

 secondaries white, forming a conspicuous elongated 

 patch ; ends of primaries and secondaries edged with 

 white ; tail black, the lateral feathers more or less 

 edged at tips with dull ashy ; lores, front of cheeks, 

 chin, throat, and middle of chest, black ; breast and 

 eides of chest more or less marked with large triangular 

 black spots ; under wing-coverts ,vellow ; bill black, 

 base of lower mandible pearl-grey ; feet bluish-grey ; 

 fpostocular triangular spot black in the skin, probably 

 pearl-gi'ey in life ; irides dark brown. Female similar 

 according to Ridgway, duller, interscapalium varied 

 with olivaceous ; no pectoral black spots, according to 

 .Sclater; probably smaller and with shorter bill. Hab., 

 " Western Mexico and Guatemala and south to Costa 

 Rica." (P. L. Sclater.) 



Mr. C. F. Underwood, in an article on the '" Birdsof the 

 Volcano of Miravalles" (The Ibis. 1896, p. 437), says: 

 " Specimens procured were shot near Bagaces in trees 

 dotting swampy potreros, accompanied by I. pushila- 

 iusi taken also in Bebedero. Native name 'Chiltote.'" 

 And this is all I have found respecting the wild life. 



Russ tells us that in 1893 Miss Hagenbeck imported 

 several specimens of this species for the first time from 



Mexico, and in December of the same year she for 

 warded to him a dead male from which he took the 

 description in his book. 



BAiiE-i'Aci'.u Hangnest [Oi/mitonii/slaj: mehuiicterus). 



Bright yellow ; back, wings, tail, bill and feet black. 

 Female similar, but doubtless with shorter hill. Hab., 

 Cayenne and Amazonia. 



Ur, Goeldi observes (The Ibis, 1897, pp. 365-568) : 

 "The splendid yellow-and-black-coloured, Oriole-liko 

 Icterid, Gijmnomystax melanictcrus, called " Aritana " 

 here in Lower Amazonia, is a real ornament of the 

 canipos-region of Marajo and iSouthern Guiana, wherever 

 these districts are traversed by rivers. Damp meadows 

 and muddy shores, alternately covered and uncovered 

 by the tides, are the favourite resorts of this interest- 

 ing bird of charming appearance. It is of confident 

 demeanour, and fond of human residences, breeding 

 regularly in the immediate vicinity of the fazendas. In 

 its character it reminds me much more of the_ " Vira- 

 bostas " (Mololhrus) than of the genuine Toupials and 

 Cassiques ; it frequents cattle settlements, is often 

 engaged on the ground with cattle-dung, and walks 

 about there for quarters of an hour together in the 

 manner of the European Starling. I have been recently 

 told that its range increases with the extension of 

 cattle-ibreeding, and that it makes its appearance along 

 with cattle in regions where it has not been seen before, 

 e.g., in the Municipio de Mazagao in the north channel 

 of the Amazonian estuary. When flying it calls wrty- 

 hrig ; when in good humour and perched near its nest 

 it emits a song like tiiigting-vreij-u-reij-r/ri-gri, and iw 

 in a few words, a bird not easily to be overlooked by a 

 visitor to a Marajo cattle settlement, making itself 

 known as well by its appearance as by its voice. 



"I have two nests of the 'Aritana,' l>oth from the 

 island of Marajo. The first is a present from a friend, 

 and was taken in December, 1895, on his extensive 

 cattle-settlements ; the second 1 took myself during a 

 recent journey to tlie same locality, Ca.bo Magoary, in 

 August and ^September, 1896. 



•■ The.'se nests are open and porringer-shaped, similar 

 to these of certain Thru.shes, and quite different from 

 the bag-nests of Ostinops and C'assicus, so far as I 

 know them, and from other constructions of the Icterinse 

 that we see figured in many ornithological works. The 

 material consists of grass leaves (whole and longi- 

 tudinally siplit), slender roots, and fragments of small 

 climbing plants. There is no softer lining. 



The second nest, taken by myself at Fazenda Livra- 

 mento, was situated in the fork of a branch and well 

 hidden in the foliage of the crown of a " mporcegeira. " 

 tree [Andira, sp. inc.), some 8 or 10 m. above the 

 ground. The tree was distant not more than, perhaps, 

 some thirty steps from the central buildings of the 

 above-mentioned fazenda, in the open farmyard, and 

 in the midst of a considerable and constant crowd of 

 men, horses and cattle. Nevertheless, the "Aritana" 

 is very circimispect in the vicinity of its ,breediiig-tree, 

 and, when it finds itself observed, does not readily 

 approach. The discovery of this nest was only effected 

 by patiently waiting for some hours in a hidden corner." 



Dr. Goeldi says the eggs sent with the first nest 

 arrived broken, and the second nest had young, which 

 were allowed to mature and fly ; but from the fragments 

 it is evident that the surface is bluish-white, with large 

 dark irregular spots. 



Captain Pam presented an example of this so-called 

 " Hangnest" to the London Zoolosical Society in 1906. 



