CHERRIE : ORNITHOLOGY OF THE ORINOCO REGION. 2O/ 



same relative size and style, and the similarity, of the materials employed 

 would all seem to indicate that the orioles had found the locality a 

 desirable one in which to rear a family, and had made preparations for 

 their second brood. This nest was about 7.6 m. from the 

 ground in a large tree standing in a rather thinly wooded savanna 

 region. It contained three fresh eggs; they are elongated ovate in 

 form and in color are white, beautifully marked with dark brown lines 

 and spots over similar underlying pale mauve colored markings, 

 especially about the larger end. They measure 23 x 15; 23.6 x 15.5 

 and 22.5 x 15.2 mm. A set of eggs sent by the writer to the Tring 

 Museum measure 25.1 x 15.6 and 24.5 x 17.1 mm 1 A single egg taken 

 with a nest May, 1905, measures 26 x 17.5 mm. and is nearly elongate 

 ovate in form. Deserted nests of this species are often taken possession 

 of for nesting purposes by other kinds of birds such as Sicalis flaveola 

 and the striped Flycatcher, Legatus albicollis. 



This oriole displays considerable individual taste in the selection 

 of material and in the details of construction of its nests. 



ICTERUS ICTERUS (Linnaeus). 



Oriolus icterus L., Syst. Nat. ed. 12. I. 1766. p. 161. pro parte. 

 Xanthornus icterus Berlepsch & Hartert, p. 32. 



Native name Trupial. Adult birds in life have the eye straw yellow, 

 bare skin about eye cobalt blue; bill black, plumbeous at base of the 

 mandible; feet plumbeous. 



Not uncommon, but wary and shy; distributed everywhere along 

 the river at least as far as the mouth of the Meta. 



Very little has been written regarding the life history of this bird. 

 It is, therefore, with much pleasure that I present the following notes. 



A nest and set of eggs was collected at Caicara May 4, 1907. The 

 nest had as its foundation the half decayed mass of grasses that had 

 once served, most probably, as a nest of Pitangus sulphuratus rufipennis. 

 Repairs had been made in the roof and a lining of soft grasses had been 

 placed on the bottom of the nest cavity. From the outside there was 

 nothing to indicate that it was more than an old nest long since aban- 

 doned. The entrance, the original one, was on one side but completely 

 hidden from below by surrounding foliage. In the same tree were 

 three other deserted nests of Pitangus, each of which was in a much 

 better state of preservation than the one that the trupial had selected. 



'Berlepsch & Hartert. p. 32. 



