﻿296 Mr. E. Hartert on the Birds of 



thornus. This is another reason for considering the Curacao 

 bird merely a subspecies. The measurements of my speci- 

 mens are as follows : — 



$ ad. sect. Aruba, 23 vi. Culmen 0*9 inch, wing 3*9. 



$ ad. sect. Aruba, 1 vii. Culmen 0'88 inch, wing 38. 



$ sect. Cura9ao, 8 vi. Culmen 1 inch, wing 3*7. 



? sect. Cura9ao, 13 vi. Culmen 1*05 inch, wing 3'5. 



? sect. Curacao, 14 vi. Culmen 1*06 inch, wing 3*7. 



$ sect. Cura9ao, 16 vi. Culmen 1 inch, wing 3*5. 



$ sect. Cura9ao, 2 viii. Culmen T05 inch, wing 3'7. 

 It is, I think, very interesting that the birds from Aruba, 

 the island nearest to the continent, agree better with the 

 continental form than those from Cura9ao. The bird is 

 equally common on all three islands, but only where it finds 

 sufficient trees in which to build its long hanging nest. I 

 have not procured skins from Bonaire, but the birds there 

 agree with those from Cura9ao. I got an egg on the 22nd 

 of July on Bonaire. The colour is of a pale bluish white, 

 sparingly covered with long and fine deeper lying cinereous 

 hair-lines and overlaid patches and lines, like Arabian letters, 

 of a deep purplish brown, more frequent on the thicker end. 

 It measures 0'93 x 0*67 inch, and the weight of it is 250 

 milligramms. 



The bird is sometimes kept in captivity, but is not much 

 appreciated. Its piping notes are less clear than those of 

 Icterus vulgaris, and they produce many screeching and 

 mewing sounds. Herr Peters (J. f. O. 1892, p. 114) thinks 

 that the Cura9ao form has a different note from that of the 

 continental 1. xanthornus, but this seems to be imagination. 

 I have heard the /. xanthornus, and both, without doubt, 

 " speak the same language." 



In the "papiamento" — the mixed dialect of Spanish, 

 Portuguese, and Dutch spoken on these islands — this bird 

 is called " Trupial cacho," i. e. Dog-Trupial. On Aruba it is 

 called " Gonzalito." 



The sexes in the adult bird are alike, but young birds have 

 greenish-olive tails. They seem to retain the immature 

 plumage for some years, as has been stated by Baird (B. N; 

 [8] 



