206 BROOKLYN INSTITUTE MUSEUM. SCIENCE BULLETIN 2. 6. 



Occasionally observed along the middle Orinoco. Among specimens 

 collected at Caicara was a breeding female which was taken June 7, 

 1898. 



ICTERUS XANTHORNUS XANTHORNUS (Gmelin). 

 Oriolus xanthornus Gm., Syst. Nat. ed. 13. I. 1788. p. 391. 

 Xanthornus xanthornus Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 31. 



Native name Gonzalito. The colors in life are, eye seal brown ; bill 

 black; feet plumbeous. 



A female in Juvenal plumage, collected at Caicara May 4, 1907, 

 is rich dark olive yellow above, darkest on the back; the wings are 

 blackish, the primaries narrowly edged on the outer webs and the 

 secondaries rather broadly edged and tipped with pale greyish ; there 

 are two wing-bands produced by pale tips of the greater and median 

 wing-coverts, that on the greater coverts being buffy and the band 

 on the median coverts shaded with the color of the back; the bend of 

 the wing and under parts are canary yellow (without a sign of the 

 black throat patch of the adults) ; the tail is dusky olive green. 



An abundant species; in habits quite like our Baltimore Oriole. In 

 trees where this oriole is nesting are very frequently found nests of one 

 or more species of Flycatchers (Pitangus, Myiozetetes, Legatus, etc.), 

 and not infrequently nests of the Gonzalito will be found close to those of 

 a colony of the yellow-rumped Hangnest, Cacicus cela. The nests aic 

 typical oriole nests, bag-shaped, about 30 cm. long and 10 cm. in 

 diameter at the bottom, slightly constricted at the top. They are 

 usually suspended between forked twigs at the extreme tips of branches. 

 I have found nests within 1.22 m. of the ground, in bushes, and again 

 15.25 m. up. During my two recent expeditions I noted a number of 

 nests building in small trees over the water that, before the eggs could 

 have been hatched and the young have left the nest, must have been 

 submerged by the rapidly rising river. 



A nest taken on the nth of May, 1907, is somewhat unusual, as 

 it is partially supported by an old nest of the same species, which a 

 month earlier contained young yellow orioles almost ready to fly. 

 Through some cause one of the supporting twigs of the old nest had 

 broken, allowing the nest to sag and partially close the entrance. The 

 new nest is supported by the remaining branch of the fork that held 

 the old nest and also by being woven fast to the old nest itself. While 

 there is no proof that both nests were built by the same pair of birds, 

 yet the choice of the same locality, the construction of nests of the 



