544 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



In their nest-building, the American orioles, or hang-nests, the ICTERID^E of the sys- 

 tems, resemble the weaver-birds, but, like the next family, they have only nine prima- 

 ries, and, in addition, their bill is more pointed and elongated. In many respects 

 they closely resemble the ten-primaried Old World starlings, and are evidently not 

 very distantly related. The name oriole, however, must not mislead anybody to the 

 belief that they are in any way connected with the orioles of the eastern hemisphere. 

 The name was transferred to the hang-nest simply on account of the black and yellow 



FIG. 271. O.ttitiojis citrins, Brazilian crested cacique. 



coloration of some of the best known species. The family is strictly American, rang- 

 ing "from Patagonia and the Falkland Islands to the Arctic Circle, while, as usual 

 with exclusively American families, the larger proportion of the genera and species 

 are found in the tropical parts of South America." They are better represented, 

 however, in our North American fauna than either the tanagers or the humming-birds, 

 for to them belong not far from thirty separable forms, among which the different boat- 

 tails, blackbirds, and grackles, orioles, meadow-larks, the bobolink, and the cowbirds. 



