ICTERID.E — tup: ORIOLES. 



001 



Var. aelacus. Raird. 

 FLORIDA OBAKLE. 



Qiii.^altift luiritus, BauM), IJinls N. Am. 18;'k*<, ')."><», ]>1. xxxii (not of Liw.K Qiii^rnhis 

 aif/(tus, I'.AiKD, Am. .Tour. Sri. lS(5t>, 84. — I'as.sin, I'l. A. N. S. l^iWi, 44. - \Ui»i- 

 WAY, Pi. a. N. S. 18«)9, 135. Q. parpinrus, Allkn, W. K. Fla. 2ia. 



Sp. Char. Leiifrih. !<>.<)<>; wing, -ViO ; tail, ij.l2; culmen, 1.40; tarsus, 1.40. 

 .111(1 tliinl (piills e(|Uiil .ind loui^est ; lirst short<'r 

 than I'o'nth ; prttjfctiiui of jiriniarios hcyond 

 sccoiuhirics. 1.12: u'i"ii<iuati<»n of tail, 1.00. 



Bill very sKmuUt and t'loni^atod, tlu' tip of 

 upper niandilik' abruptly docurved; connnis- 

 sniv vory rt'iridar. 



Mftallic tints very dark. Head and neck 

 all round well defined violaceous steel-blue, 

 the he.id most bluish, the neek more purplish 

 and with a luonzy cast in front; body uniibrm ^'a*"- a?'*^"*- 



soft, dull, bronzy greenish-black, scarcely lustrous; wings, upper tail-covert,^, .and tail 

 blackish steel-blue, the wing-coverts tipped with vivid violet-bronze; belly and crissum 

 glossed with blue. 



Had. South Florida. 



This mce is (piite well marked, though it grades insensibly into tlie var. 

 pvrimirus. Tt difters from both tliat and aiicus in much smaller size, with 

 more slender and more decurved l)ill. 



The arrangement of the colors is much as in the larger western species, 

 while the tints are most like those of the eastern. All the colors are, how- 

 ever, darker, but at tlie same time softer than in either of the others 



In form this s])ecies approaches nearest the western, agreeing with it in 

 the i)iimaries, slender ]>ill, and more graduated tail, and, indeed, its relations 

 in every respect appear to be with this rather than the eastern. 



This race w\as first described from sjjecimens collected at Key Biscayne 

 by Mr. Wurdemann, in April, 1857, and in 1858, and is the smallest of the 

 genus within our limits. The wing and tail each are al)out an inch shorter 

 than in the other varieties of 2^Hrpvr(:}iii. The bill, however, is much longer 

 and more slender, aud tlie tij) considerably more produced and detnirvcd. 

 The feet are stouter and much coarser, the ])ads of tht . jes very scabrous, 

 as if to assist in holding slippery substances, a feature scarcely seen iu 

 purpurcus} 



1 A series of twenty-nine specimens of Q. pttrpureus from Florida, has been kindly funiished 

 for examination by Mr. C. J. Maynard, chiefly from the northern and middle portions of the 

 State, and consequently intermediate between the varieties (Uflcciut and purpunus. In color, 

 however, they are nearly all essentially, most of them typically, like the former ; but in size 

 and pnnK)rtions they scarcely differ from more northern specimens of the latter. Their common 

 and nearly constant features of coloration are, uniform soft dark greenish Itoily, with blue tinge 

 on belly, and bluish-green tail-coverts and tail, violet head, more blue anteriorly and more bronzy 



