PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 351 
DESCRIPTION OF ANEW SPECIES OF ICTERUS FROM THE WEST 
ENDIES. 
By GEORGE N. LAWRENCE. 
Icterus oberi. 
Male: Head, neck, upper part of breast, back, wings, and tail black ; 
lower part of breast, abdomen, under tail-coverts, and rump light- 
brownish chestnut, with the concealed bases of the feathers of a clear 
light yellow; the thighs are yellow, with a wash of chestnut; edge of 
wing and under wing-coverts yellow; bill black, with the sides of the 
under mandible bluish for half its length from the base; tarsi and toes 
black. 
Length (skin), 84 inches; wing, 33; tail, 4; tarsus, $; Dill, Z. 
The female has the upper plumage of a dull greenish olive, with a yel- 
lowish tinge, the front and rump inclining more to yellow; the tail 
feathers are yellowish green; quills brownish black; the primaries and 
secondaries are edged narrowly with dull yellowish gray; the tertiaries 
are margined with fulvous; wing-coverts dark brown, margined with 
fulvous ; edge of wing yellow; the under plumage is of a rather dull 
dark yellow; the breast and under tail-coverts are of a deeper or warmer 
color; the sides are greenish olive; bill and legs as in the male. 
The young male resembles the female in plumage, but has the back 
somewhat darker. 
Types in National Museum, Washington. 
It differs from all its allies, which are somewhat similarly colored, in 
having the shoulders black, instead of yellow or chestnut. 
Seven specimens were obtained. 
In the early part of March of the present year, Mr. Ober left for the 
West Indies, intending to explore as many of the islands not visited on 
his first expedition as his limited time would permit. He returned after 
an absence of six months, and his collections sent to the Smithsonian 
Institution were placed in my hands for examination. Among them I 
found but one new species, viz, the Icterus above described, procured in 
Montserrat. 
It seems but a fitting compliment that the only new species commem- 
orative of the second expedition of Mr. Ober should bear his name. 
The catalogues of the birds obtained by him in the different islands 
will be published in the Proceedings of the National Museum as soon 
as he furnishes me with his notes and observations thereon. 
OCTOBER 15, 1880. 
