472 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



that there is much variation in the amount of white on the remiges 

 and their coverts, even independently of season and wear. Moreover, 

 this white is very evanescent, and soon wears away. There is much 

 variation in general color also, some individuals being brilliant orange, 

 and others much less intense. Two females from Fundacion (October 

 ii and 20) show the completion of the postjuvenal moult, the black 

 throat-feathers just coming in, while a young male from Punto Cai- 

 man (October 2) is not so far advanced. 



Wyatt recorded this well-known species from the immediate vicinity 

 of Santa Marta in 1871, and later Simons met with it in the same 

 locality. The latter collector says that it is, " after the ' Trupial,' 

 the greatest favourite here, and the best songster, piping every tune 

 taught it. It prefers the hot valleys, among cacti and acacia, to the 

 cool forests."' It is strictly a bird of the littoral Tropical Zone, being 

 abundant in the semi-arid coast belt, and extending around into the 

 valley of the Rio Rancheria, but not seen above 1,000 feet. Although 

 present throughout the lowlands, it is not so abundant in the more 

 humid portions. It frequents cultivated lands, open scrub-growth, 

 and the borders of streams. The nest is often built in a cocoanut palm, 

 hung from the long pendant leaves. Mr. Smith sent in no less than 

 seventeen nests, collected in the months of April and May, six of 

 which contained two eggs each, and ten three each, while one had 

 five — an exceptional number. Dr. Allen says that "these nests are of 

 the usual pendant, Icterus style, with the entrance at the top, but they 

 vary considerably in length and in the character of the materials used 

 in their construction. They are composed principally of grass, but 

 vary in color, being dull grayish brown, yellowish brown, or even 

 bright reddish brown, according to the kind of grass selected. One 

 differs from all the others in being composed of a much finer and more 

 wiry kind of grass than the others. They are all very compactly 

 woven, the walls gradually thickening from the top to the bottom, the 

 bottom being from one-half to three-fourths of an inch thick, within 

 which is a circularly woven thick lining of softer material than the 

 walls, forming a sort of second nest at the bottom of the pouch. The 

 nests vary in length from about 10 to 16 inches, with a diameter at 

 the bottom of about 4^ inches. 



" The eggs are white, sometimes bluish white, scrawled with lines of 

 purplish black, and sometimes with lavender, chiefly about the greater 



