ICTERID^ — THE AMERICAN ORIOLES. 32^ 



The genus Quiscalus in its most restricted sense, includes but 

 two species, one of them with two geographical races, all of which are 

 confined to eastern North America. Certain authors profess to be 

 unable to distinguish the three forms which were first indicated 

 by Professor Baird in 1858, and eleven years afterward clearly 

 characterized by me in the "Proceedings" of the Philadelphia Acad- 

 emy for 18(59, pp. 133-135. The fact nevertheless is evident to any 

 one who will take the trouble to carefully examine large series of 

 specimens (the larger the series the more positive do the differences 

 become) that on the eastern side of the Alleghenies is found, almost 

 exclusively, a form which may instantly be distinguished from that 

 occurring, to the complete exclusion of the coast race, on the western 

 side of the range in question. The coast race or species extends 

 north to the southeastern corner of New York, and along the coast 

 of southern New England, but becomes rare in eastern Massachusetts, 

 beyond which point it has not been traced. To the south it extends 

 in its typical form to northern Florida, but in the southern portion of 

 the latter State it becomes, by gradual transition, smaller, with a 

 larger bill, and somewhat different coloration. The Florida bird 

 constitutes a local race, for which the name Q. qmscula aglaus Baied 

 is available, the more northern bird being the true Q. quiscula 

 (Linn.) Throughout the country between the Alleghenies and Eocky 

 Mountains, and northward to Hudson's Bay and Labrador, as well 

 as throughout the greater part of New England and also the Middle 

 States west of the mountains, Q. quiscula is wholly replaced by 

 a bird of similar size and form but totally different coloration. 

 This is the Q. ceneus, mihi. I have usually ranked it as a race of 

 Q. quiscula; but the circumstance that among very large series of 

 both forms (amounting to several hundred specimens) I have never 

 seen one which I could not immediately refer to one or the other, 

 very strongly suggests their specific distinctness, as I had at first 

 claimed for them. A fact equally significant of the correctness 

 of this view is that typical specimens of Q. ceneus have occasionally 

 been taken, as undoubted stragglers, within the region inhabited 

 by Q. quiscula, but at the same time no intermediate specimens 

 appear ever to have been found. In accordance, therefore, with 

 definite and consistent principles for my guidance in the applica- 

 tion of the tact of intergradation as the test of conspecific relation 

 between closely related forms, I am compelled to recognize Q. ceneus 

 as a distinct species until intergradation with Q. quiscula shall have 

 been proven. 



