HAiXGNESTS. 



region described as black, probably greyish-blue in life ; 

 anterior edge of cheeks, chin, throat, and centre of 

 breast black ; bill shining black, the lower mandible 

 with a basal patch of pale blue-grey ; feet bluish-flesh- 

 coloured ; irides yellowish-white or pale yellow. Female 

 smaller and with shorter bill. Hab., "Caribbean coast 

 district of northern South America, from Cayenne to 

 Colombia, Trinidad, and Margarita Island, Isthmus of 

 Panama (?)." (Ridgway.) 



Bidgway separates an insular form as a sub-species 

 under the"name of I. curasoensis, differing in its longer 

 bill, the young much paler than that of /. xanthornus 



BRAZILIAN HANGNEST. 



(typicus). Hab., Islands of Curagao, Bonaire, and 

 Aruba. 



Burmeister ("Systematise-he Uebersicht," Vol. Ill, 



" It is, I think, very interesting that the birds Irom 

 Aru'ba, the island nearest to the- continent, agree better 

 \vith the continental form than those from Curagao. 

 The bird is equally common on alll 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 

 Curagao. I got an egg on the 22nd of July in Bonaire. 

 The colour is of a pale bluiish-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 0.93in. by 0.67in., and the weight of it is 

 250 milligrammes. " 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." 



Huss says that this is one of the very rarest of im- 

 ported birds ; he only knows of a specimen which 

 reached the Amsterdam Gardens in 1882 ; but in 1906 

 Mr. E. W. Harper brought home and presented a speci- 

 men to the London Zoological Gardens, and doubtless 

 others will come from time to time. 



COMMON HANGNEST (Icterus vulgaris). 

 Brilliant cadmium-yellow, deepest and brightest on 

 the breast ; entire head, neck, elongated throat feathers 

 extending over middle of fore-chest, a broad belt be- 

 tween the shoulders, wings and tail black ; lesser wing- 

 coverts yellow ; a broad, longitudinal white belt 

 (slightly yellowish in old birds), including the median 



coverts, inner greater 

 coverts, ami broad 

 borders to inner 

 secondaries ; orbital 

 naked skin, forming 

 an imperfect fusi- 

 form zone, enclosing 

 the eye, pearl or blue- 

 grev ; bill black, with 

 a large whitish ash 

 patch at base of lower 

 mandible ; feet pearl- 

 grey, slightly yel- 

 lowish at proximal end 

 of tarso-metatarsTis ; 

 irides pale or bone- 

 yellow. -Female 

 slightly smaller, with 

 considerably shorter 

 bill. Hab., "Coast- 

 region of Colombia and 

 Venezuela and Trini- 

 dad." (Sclater.) "Mar- 

 garita and Curagao. 

 Introduced into West 

 Thomas, Porto Rico, and 



Indian Islands of St. 

 Jamaica." (Ridgway.) 

 In 1907 I separated a form as a sub-species under the 



p. 270) says that this species " lives upon bushv round * separated a form as a sub-species under the 



but not exactly in deep primaeval forest; it Is seen name of /. hmoneus, believing it to be that indicated 

 singly or in pairs at the breeding-season, and builds a y , 6rr Peters as occurring in the island of Curagao, 

 long, openly woven purse-shaped nest of grass stalks, On 1 . g roun <J f 'f its more slender outline, its pale 

 which is suspended freely from the twigs in the bush'. colouring, the naked orbital marking reduced to a small 

 The eggs are pale bluish-white, tolerably thickly spotted Bangle behind the eye, and the outer tail-feathers 



having white external margins; its songs are many 

 and varied, instead of uniform and monotonous : a. 



with red -brown, with somewhat darker spots at the 

 blunt end." 



Of the form from Curagao Dr. Hartert says (The Ibis 8^ 'Coloured plate was published with my article (The 



93. Tm 9Q5 9Qft^ " Tho armmrrtunt* f^Vvw, r*,-.-r, nn ^ AlTlftllf/lirfll. Htfinn'rino AToiir Qari.aa T7VJ \T , ,^ OOC OT.f\\ 



1893, pp. 295, 296): "The specimens from Curagao 

 all agree, but two males from Aruba have the bills 

 shorter and stronger, and also the yellow colour brighter 

 and more tinged with orange." 



Avicultural Magazine, New Series, Vol. V., pp. 225-230). 

 Later the pale colouring proved to be- a sign of youth, 

 but all other characters persist. 

 In the "Journal fur Ornithologie," 1892, Peters says 



