ICTERUS. 377 



quills and secondaries (the middle coverts sometimes whitish), and tail 

 black across middle portion. 



Adult male : Head, neck, middle line of chest, back, scapulars, wings 

 (except lesser and middle coverts), and greater part of tail black; 

 broad tips to greater wing-coverts, and narrow edgings to some of 

 the quills and secondaries (these sometimes worn away), white ; rest 

 of plumage, including lesser and middle wing-coverts, base and tip 

 of tail (except middle feathers but on outer feathers occupying 

 nearly half their total length), rich cadmium-orange, sometimes 

 varying to intense orange-red, very rarely to lemon-yellow. Adult 

 female: Very variable in color, but usually (?) with upper parts 

 olive, indistinctly streaked or spotted with black, the wings dusky, 

 with two white bands, and light grayish edges to most of the 

 feathers ; rump dull ochraceous-orange ; tail duller, more olivaceous, 

 orange ; lower parts dull orange, paler on flanks, the throat usually 

 with more or less admixture of black. [Note. The adult female 

 often has the black pattern of head, neck, and back as in male, but 

 the color much duller and less uniform. The young male also varies 

 between the two extremes (adult male and female) as described 

 above, and cannot in any stage be with certainty distinguished 

 from the adult female except by dissection.] Young of year : Simi- 

 lar to adult female, as described above, but colors softer and more 

 blended, and upper parts suffused with brownish. Length about 

 7.00-8.15, wing 3.50-3.90, tail 2.85-3.35. Nest more or less purse- 

 shaped and pensile, suspended from extremity of drooping branches, 

 composed of various textile substances, as various natural plant- 

 fibres, strings, etc., compactly interwoven, the nest proper com- 

 posed of softer materials arranged within the supporting pouch. 

 Eggs 3-5, .89 X -60, dull white, greenish white, or brownish 

 white, curiously streaked or irregularly "pen-lined" with brown 

 and black, sometimes mixed with brown spots or stains. Hob. 

 Eastern North America, north to New England, Ontario, and the 

 Saskatchewan, west across Great Plains ; south, in winter, through 

 eastern Mexico and Central America to Panama. 



507. I. galbula (LINN.). Baltimore Oriole. 



b 2 . Wing not less than 3.80 (in adult), tail not less than 3.10 (averaging de- 

 cidedly more) ; adult males with whole malar region yellow or orange, 

 an orange streak over lores (sometimes prolonged into a superciliaiy 

 stripe), lesser wing-coverts entirely, or for the greater part, black, white 

 of wings covering whole of middle and outer webs of greater coverts, 

 besides very broad edges to tertials and secondaries, and tail yellow or 

 orange, with middle feathers and tips of the others black. 

 c l . Adult male : Forehead, distinct superciliary stripe, ear-coverts, sides, and 

 flanks yellow or orange ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 yellow or orange, more or less tinged with olive. Adult female : Top 



48 



