HANGXESTS. 



YELLOW-BACKKD HANGNEST (Icterus croconotus). 



Nearly .resembling the preceding species, but the 

 crown of the head, excepting the forehead and the 

 scapularies, bright orange. Hab., " Guiana and Ama- 

 zonia to Ecuador and interior of Brazil." (P. L. Sclater.) 



Mr. W. Goodfellow (The Ibis, 1901, p. 478) says : " We 

 frequently saw pairs, but they seemed confined to the 

 edge of the forests along the river banks and places 

 where bamboos grew. On the Coca, in June, . I saw 

 three of their nests in close proximity, suspended from 

 the tips of bamboos overhanging the wate-r. The bare 

 skin round the eyes is dark slaty-blue. Beautiful as 

 the colour of these birds is in the skin, it is still more 

 beautiful in life. I noticed that our specimens faded 

 as soon as thev began to dry, and turned more yellow. 

 The Zaparo Indians called them ' Palandra pisco, ' 

 which was not very distinctive, for they applied the 

 .same name to other birds. It means Plantain-bird." 



That is all I have discovered respecting the wild life. 

 Russ says that the London Zoological Gardens possessed 

 this species in 1865; Emil Linden, one of the best- 

 known German aviculturists, also possessed it, and in 

 1889 Mangelsdorff brought it home with him from 

 Brazil 



BLACK-THROATED HANGNEST (Icterus gularis). 



Orange-yellow ; scapularies black ; wings, excepting 

 lesser coverts, black, edged with white; tail, lores, 

 throat extending down to th breast and bill, black; 

 feet dark horn-grey; irides pale yellow. Female yel- 

 low ; scapularies and tail olive ; wings brown with 

 whitish edges; throat black. Hab., "Southern 

 Mexico, Yucatan, British Honduras, and Guatemala." 

 (P. L. Sclater.) 



I have not discovered any field notes. Russ says it is 

 one of the rarest species in the German market ; never- 

 theless since 1886 single examples are always being 

 imported by the principal dealers. 



BLACK-SPOTTED HANGNEST (Icterus pectoralis). 



Bright orange-yellow, redder on the head; upper 

 back, scapulars, and wings, with the exception of the 

 lesser and middle coverts, black; outer borders of 

 secondaries white, forming a conspicuous elongated 

 patch; ends of primaries and secondaries edged with 

 white; tail black, the lateral feathers more or less 

 edged at tips with dull ashy; lores, front of cheeks, 

 chin, throat, and middle of chest, black; breast and 

 aides of chest- more or less marked with large triangular 

 black spots ; under wing-coverts yellow ; bill black, 

 base of lower mandible pearl-grey; feet bluish-grey; 

 postocular triangular spot black in the skin, probably 

 pearl-grey in life ; irides dark brown. Female similar 

 according to Ridgway, duller, interecapalium varied 

 with olivaceous; no pectoral black spots, according to 

 Sclater; probably smaller and with shorter bill. Hab., 

 " Western Mexico and Guatemala and south to Costa, 

 Rica." (P. L. Sclater.) 



Mr. C. F. Underwood, in an article on the " Birds of the 

 Volcano of .Miravalles " (The Ibis, 1896, p. 437), says : 

 " Specimens procured were shot near Bagaces in trees 

 dotting swampy potreros, accompanied by /. pustula- 

 tus ; taken also dn Bebedero. Native name 'Chiltote.' " 

 And this is all I have found respecting the wild life. 



Russ tells us that in 1893 Miss Hagenbeck imported 

 several specimens of this species for the first time from 



Mexico, and in December of the same year she for 

 warded to him a dead male from which he took the 

 description in his book. 



BARE-FACED HANGNEST (Gymnomystax melanicterus} . 



Bright yellow ; back, wings, tail, bill and feet black. 

 Female similar, but doubtless with shorter hill. Hab., 

 Cayenne and Amazonia. 



Dr. Goeldi observes (The Ibis, 1897, pp. 365-368) : 

 "The splendid yellow-and-black-coloured, Oriole-like 

 Icterid, Gymnomystax melanicterus, called "Aritana" 

 here in Lower Amazonia, is a real ornament of the 

 campos-region of Marajo and Southern Guiana, wherever 

 these districts are traversed by rivers. Damp meadows 

 and muddy shores, alternately covered and uncovered 

 by the tides, are the favourite resorts of this interest- 

 ing bird of charming appearance. It is of confident 

 demeanour, and fond of human residences, breeding 

 regularly in the immediate vicinity of the fazendas. In 

 its character it reminds me much more of the " Vira- 

 bostas " (Molothrus) than of the genuine Toupials and 

 Cassiques ; it frequents cattle settlements, is often 

 engaged on the ground with cattle-dung, and walks 

 about there for quarters of an hour together in the 

 manner of the European Starling. I have been recently 

 told that its range increases with the extension of 

 cattle-breeding, and that it makes its appearance along 

 with cattle in regions where it has not been seen before, 

 e.g., in the /Municipio de Mazagao in the north channel 

 of the Amazonian estuary. When flying it calls wrey- 

 kreg ; when in good humour and perched near its nest 

 it emits a song like ting-ting-wreg-wreg-gri-gri, and ib 

 in a few words, a bird not easily to be overlooked by a 

 visitor to a Marajo cattle settlement, making itself 

 known as well by its appearance as by its voice. 



" I have two nests of the ' Aritana,' both from the 

 island of Marajo. The first is a present from a friend, 

 and was taken in December, 1895, on his extensive 

 cattle-settlements ; the second I took myself during a 

 recent journey to the same locality, Cabo Magoary, in 

 August and September, 1896. 



" These nests are open and porringer-shaped, similar 

 to those of certain Thrushes, and quite different from 

 the "bag-nests of Ostinof)-? and Cassicus, so far as I 

 know them, and from other constructions of the Icterinae 

 that we see figured in many ornithological works. The 

 material consists of grass leaves (whole and longi- 

 tudinally split), slender roots, and fragments of small 

 climbing plants. There is no softer lining. 



The second nest, taken by myself at Fazenda Livra- 

 mento, was situated in the fork of a branch and well 

 hidden iai the foliage of the crown of a " mporcegeira, " 

 tree (Andira, sp. inc.), some 8 or 10 m. above th 

 ground. The tree was distant not more than, perhaps, 

 some thirty steps from the central buildings of the 

 above-mentioned fazenda, in the open farmyard, and 

 in the midst of a considerable and constant crowd of 

 men, horses and cattle. Nevertheless, the " Aritana " 

 is very circumspect in the vicinity of its breeding-tree, 

 and, when it finds itself observed, does not readily 

 approach. The discovery of this nest was only effected 

 'by patiently waiting for some hours in a hidden corner." 

 Dr. Goeldi says the eggs sent with the first nest 

 arrived broken, and the second nest had young, which 

 were allowed to mature and fly : but from the fragments 

 it is evident that the surface is bluish-white, with large 

 dark irregular spots. 



Captain Pam presented an example of this so-called 

 "Hangnest" to the London Zoological Society in 1906. 



