ICTERID^ — THE ORIOLES. 193 



tame and familiar. One that he kept through the winter, when two months 

 old whistled with great clearness and vivacity. 



All the nests of this species that I have seen from Georgia, Florida, 

 Louisiana, or Texas, have no lining, but are wholly made of one material, 

 a flexible kind of reed or grass. 



The sociability of this species is one of its most marked characteristics. 

 Audubon says that he has known no less than nine nests in the same en- 

 closure, and all the birds living together in great harmony. 



A nest of this bird, taken in Berlin, Conn., by Mr. Brandigee, has a diam- 

 eter and a height of four inches. Its cavity is three inches in depth, and varies 

 from three to three and a half in diameter, being widest at the centre, or 

 half-way between the top and the base. It is entirely homogeneous, having 

 been elaborately and skilfully woven of long green blades of grass. The 

 inside is lined with animal wool, bits of yarn, and intermingled with a 

 wooly substance of entirely vegetable origin. It was built from the extrem- 

 ity of the branch of an apple-tree. ■ 



An egg of this species, from Washington, measures .85 of an inch in 

 length by .62 in breadth. The ground is a pale bluish-white, blotched with 

 a pale purple, and dashed, at the larger end, with a few deep markings of 

 dark purplish-brown. An egg from New Mexico is similar, but measures 

 .79 of an inch by .54. Both are oblong oval, and pointed at one end. 



Icterus cucuUatus, Swainson. 



HOODED ORIOLE. 



Icterus cucuUatus, Swainson, Philos. Mag. I, 1827, 436. — Lawrence, Ann. N. Y. Lye. 

 V, May, 1851, 116 (first introduced into fauna of United States). — Cassin, 111. L ii> 

 1853, 42, pi. viii. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 275. — Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 

 546. Pcndidinus cucuUatus, Bon. Consp. 1850, 433. — Ca.s.s. Pr. 1867, 60. 



Sp. Char. Both mandibles much curved. Tail much graduated. Wings, a rather 

 narrow band across the back, tail, and a patch starting as a narrow frontal band, involving 

 the eyes, anterior half of cheek, chin, and throat, and ending as a rounded patch on the 

 upper part of breast, black. Rest of body orange-yellow. Two bands on the wing and 

 the edges of the quills white. Female without the black patch of the throat; the upper 

 parts generally yellowish-green, brown on the back, beneath j'cllowish. Length, 7.50; 

 wing, 3.25. 



Hab Valley of Lower Rio Grande, southward; Tucson, Arizona (Dr. Palmer); 

 Lower California, Cordova (Scl. 1856, 300); Guatemala? (Scl. Ibis L 20); Cuba? 

 (Lawr. Ann. VII, 1860, 267) ; San Bernardino, California (Cooper, P. Cal., etc. 1861, 

 122) ; Vera Cruz hot region (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553) ; Mazatlan. 



The orange varies greatly in tint and intensity with tlie individual ; 

 sometimes it is deep orange-red ; often clear dull yellow, l)ut more frequently 

 of an oily orange. 



This species is closely allied to the /. aurocapillus of South America, but 



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