ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 173 



wing-coverts concolor with the wings (instead of very decidedly 

 more bluisli) ; black bars of tertials and tail-feathers clean, narrow, 

 and isolated. White of sides, flanks, and crissum nearly pure. 

 Hah. Western United States and Western Mexico , var. neglecta. 



In magna and neglecta, the feathers of the pectoral crescent are generally 

 black to the base, their roots being grayish-white ; one specimen of the 

 former, however, from North Carolina, has the roots of the feathers yellow, 

 forbidding the announcement of this as a distinguishing character; mexicana 

 may have the bases of these feathers either yellow or grayish ; while hippo- 

 crepis has only the tips of the feathers black, the whole concealed portion 

 being bright yellow. 



In mexicana, there is more of an approach to an orange tint in the yellow 

 than is usually seen in magna, but specimens from Georgia have a tint not 

 distinguishable ; in both, however, as well as in hipipocrepis, there is a deeper 

 yellow than in neglecta, in which the tint is more citreous. 



As regards the bars on tertials and tail, there is considerable variation. 

 Sometimes in either of the species opposed to neglecta by this character 

 there is a tendency to their isolation, seen in the last few toward the ends 

 of the feathers ; but never is there an approach to that regularity seen in 

 neglecta, in which they are isolated uniformly everywhere they occur. Two 

 specimens only (54,064 California and 10,316 Pembina) in the entire series 

 of neglecta show a tendency to a blending of these bars on the tail. 



Magna, mexicana, meridionalis and hipipocreins, are most similar in colora- 

 tion ; neglecta is most dissimilar compared with any of the others. Though 

 each possesses peculiar characters, they are only of degree ; for in the most 

 widely different forms {neglecta and mexicana) there is not the slightest 

 departure from the pattern of coloration ; it is only a matter of extension or 

 restriction of the several colors, or a certain one of them, that produces the 

 differences. 



Each modification of plumage is attended by a stiU greater one of pro- 

 portions, as will be seen from the diagnoses ; thus, though neglecta is the 

 largest of the group, it has actually the smallest legs and feet ; with nearly 

 the same general proportions, magna exceeds it in the latter respects 

 (especially in the bill), while mexicana, a very mucli smaller bird than 

 either, has disproportionally and absolutely larger legs and feet united with 

 the smallest size otherwise in the whole series. Meridionalis presents no 

 differences from the last, except in proportions of bill and feet ; for wl>ile 

 the latter is the smallest of the series, next to neglecta, it has a bill much 

 exceeding that of any other. 



The markings of the upper plumage of the young or even winter birds 

 are different in pattern from those of the adult ; the tendency being toward 

 the peculiar features of the adult neglecta; the various species iii these 

 stages being readily distinguishable, however, by the general characters 

 assigned. Mexicana and neglecta are both in proportions and colors the 



