288 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Icterus parisorum, Bonap. 



SCOTT'S ORIOLE. 



Icterus parisorum, ("Bon. Acad. Bonon. 1836.") — Bp. Pr. Zobl. Soc. V, 1837, 109. — 

 Baird, Birds N. Am, 1858, 544, pi. Ivii, f. 1 ; Mex. B. II, Birds, 19, pi. xix, f. 1. 

 — Cassin, Pr. 1867, 54. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 276. Xanthor.nus parisoriim, 

 Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 434. Icterus melanochrysura, Lesson, Rev. Zobl. 1839, 105. — 

 Icterus scotti. Couch, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VII, April, 1854, 66 (Coahuila). 



Sp. Char. Bill attenuated ; not much decurved ; tail moderately graduated. Head 

 and neck all round, breast, interscapular region, wings, and tail, black. Under parts 

 generally, hinder part of back to the tail, middle and lesser upper, and whole of lower 

 wing-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers, gamboge-yellow ; a band across the ends of 

 the greater coverts, with the edges of the inner secondaries and tertiaries, white. Length, 

 8.25; extent, 11.75; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.75; tarsus, .95. 



Female. Olivaceous above, the back with obsolete dusky streaks ; rump and under 

 parts yellowish, clouded with gray. Tail brownish-olive on upper surface, more yellow 

 beneath ; wings with two white bands. 



Hab. Valley of the Rio Grande ; south to Gruatemala. In Texas, found on the Pecos. 

 Cape St. Lucas. Oaxaca, winter (Scl. 1858, 303) ; Orizaba (Scl. 1860, 251) ; Vera Cruz, 

 temp, and alpine (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553). 



The bill is slender and attenuated, very little decurved, much less so than 

 in /. cucullatus, slenderer and a little more decurved than in /. haltimore. 

 The tail is moderately graduated, the outer feather .45 of an inch less than 

 the middle. 



In this species the black feathers of the neck, except below, have a sub- 

 terminal bar of yellow ; elsewhere it is wanting. The black of the breast 

 comes a little posterior to the anterior extremity of the folded wing. The 

 posterior feathers in the yellow patch on the shoulders are tinged with white. 

 The white in the bar across the ends of the greater coverts is confined 

 mainly to the terminal quarter of an inch of the outer web. In the full 

 plumage, there is only a faint trace of white on the edges of the primaries. 

 The yellow of the base of the tail only extends on the middle feather as far 

 as the end of the upper tail-coverts ; on the three outer, it reaches to within 

 an inch and a quarter of the end of the tail. 



An immature male has the yellow more tinged with green, the black feath- 

 ers of the head and back olivaceous with a black spot. 



Specimens vary much in size ; the more northern being the larger. 



Icterus ivaglcri ^ is an allied species found just south of the Eio Grande 

 by Lieutenant Couch, but not yet detected within our limits. 



1 Ictenis wagleri, Sclater, Pr. Zool. Soc. 1857, 7. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 545, pi. 

 Ivii, f. 2. — Ib. Mex. B. 11, Birds, 19, pi. xix, f. 2. — Cass. Pr. 1867, 55. Psarocolius flavi- 

 gaster, Wagi.er, Isis, 1829, 756 (not of Vieillot). PenduUnus dominicensis, Bp. Consp. 1850, 

 432 (not of Linn.). 



Sp. Char. Bill much attenuated and considerably decurved. Tail considerably graduated. 

 Head and neck all round, back (the color extending above over the whole interscapular region). 



