JNOKTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 345 



[502.] TROUPIAL. Icterus icterus (Linn.) Geog. Dist Northern South 

 America; West Indies (introduced). Accidental at Charleston, S. C. (Audubon). 



This splendid Oriole is admitted as North American on. the strength of a single 

 specimen, shot in Charleston, S. C., by John W. Audubon, son of the great ornitholo- 

 gist. Others were seen at the same place, and Audubon was informed that small 

 groups of four and five subsequently made their appearance in the same city and 

 among the islands. Another specimen was shot which fell in the river, and was 

 lost. These may have been birds that escaped from cages, but, as Dr. Brewer ob- 

 serves: "If his information- was correct, it precludes the supposition that those 

 which have been procured are caged birds." The Troupial is a very popular and de- 

 sirable cage bird, having a loud, clear, flute-like whistle, and when kept in confine- 

 ment becomes very tame. It is. common to all the northern countries of South 

 America, where it is said to associate in large flocks. The nest is described as a 

 large, massive, pensile fabric; the eggs are four or five in number, with a ground- 

 color varying from reddish-drab to deep purple, blotched and streaked with reddish- 

 brown and blackish. Size, 1.10x.90. 



503. AUDTJBON'S ORIOLE. Icterus audubonii Giraud. Geog. Dist. Central 

 and Northern Mexico, north to the Lower Rio Grande Valley in Texas. 



This large and beautiful Oriole is found in the United States in the Lower Rio 

 Grande Valley, from thence southward. Dr. Merrill found it in moderate abundance 

 about Fort Brown, where it is the only resident species. Its usual song is a pro- 

 longed and repeated whistle of extraordinary mellowness and sweetness, each note 

 varying in pitch from the preceding. It is shy, and remains in the deep woods 

 during the breeding season. At Lomita, on the Rio Grande, Mr. George B. Sennett 

 found two nests with incomplete sets of eggs early in May. At Hidalgo a set of four 

 was taken. The three nests were found in heavy timber, some ten or twelve feet 

 from the ground, are half-pensile, something like those of the Orchard and Bullock's 

 Orioles, and attached to upright terminal branches. They are composed of dried 

 grasses woven among the growing twigs and leaves so as to form a matting light 

 and firm. They measure on the inside some three inches in depth and rather more 

 in width. The eggs Mr. Sennett describes as being peculiar, resembling those of no 

 other found in that region. The ground-color is white, covered with fine flecks of 

 brown, giving the egg the appearance of being covered with dust. Over these flecks, 

 and principally at the larger end, are irregular stains and splashes of deeper brown, 

 sometimes mixed with lilac, on which are coarse dark brown or black hieroglyphics. 

 Some have more and larger splashes than others, but none are free from the dark, 

 grotesque lines peculiar to the eggs of this family. In shape they are less pointed, 

 and in size smaller to size of bird, than those of other Orioles. The shells are very 

 tender. Nine specimens average in size .97x.71, the largest being l.OOx.72, and the 

 smallest .96x.67.* 



504. SCOTT'S ORIOLE. Icterus parisorum Bonap. Geog. Dist. Central Mexi- 

 co, north to southern border of the United States Texas to Arizona. Lower Cali- 

 fornia. 



Scott's, Paris or Black-and-yellow Oriole, as it is variously called, is found more 

 or less abundantly in all suitable localities of- Southern Texas, New Mexico and 

 Arizona. On May 4, 1885, Mr. W. E. D. Scott found a nest of this species containing 



* Further Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas. 



