PASSERINE. 297 
Some of them form a single mass of a great number of individual 
nests, which contains several distinct apartments. Such is 
Loxia socia, Lath.; Paters. Voy. pl. xix. (The Republican.) 
An olive brown; yellowish beneath; head ae quills brown or 
blackish. 
Among those of the western continent, we may remark, 
Oriolus niger, Or. oryzivorus, Corvus surinamensis, Gm.; Mau- 
geur de riz; Cassique noir, &c.3; Enl. 534; Brown, Il. X; Wils. III, 
XXi, 4, which, in immense flocks, devastates the fields of seve- 
ral of the warmer portions of America. Its colour is a changea- 
ble black, reflecting all the magnificent tints of burnished steel. (1) 
Daud. An. Mus. I, p. 148, pl. x, or Malimbe huppé, Vieill. Ois. ch. 42 and 43 ;— 
the Malimbe orangé, 1d. 44 ;—Malimbe a gorge noir, 1d. 45 ;—the Tiss. 4 front dor, 
(Ploc. aurifrons, Tem., Col. 175, 176);—the Baglafecht (Lox. abyssinica);—the 
Neélicourvi (Lox. pensilis), Sonn. Voy. Il, pl. cix;—the Worabee (Fring. abyssinica, 
Gm.), Vieill. Ois. 28;—Fring. erythrocephala, Gm., Vieill. Ib., 28. We might dis- 
‘tinguish the Ploc. alecto, Tem. Col., 446, which has an inflation at the base of the 
beak. ; 
(1) Nomenclators have not yet succeeded in putting in order the black birds 
of America more or less nearly allied to the Cassici, for the want of sufficiently 
detailed descriptions. We think it right to indicate the principal ones here, and 
at the same time to point out such of their synonymes as appear to be the most 
clearly ascertained. 
1. The Cassique noir 4 mantelet, as above. 
’ 9. The bird’ mentionéd above, well drawn, but painted without its reflected 
tints, Enl. 534, and quoted under Oriolus niger. The Oriolus ludovicianus, Enl. 
646, is only an albino variety of the same. It is evidently the Corvus surinamensis, 
ra Ill, pl. x.. The Little Choucas of Jamaica, Sloane, Jam. I, 299, pl. cclvii, 
1, quoted by Pennant as Gracula barita and as quiscala, is this same bird again. 
On the other hand, it is impossible to doubt that Latham had it before him when 
me described his Oriolus Oryzivorus. 
3. The true Carouge noir, with purple changes, beak rather short, but very 
stele given as a Tanager, Enl. 710, and from which the Tun. bonariensis has 
been made; but this figure really represents the Oriolus minor. The fig. 2, Enl. 
606, is given, but erroneously, for the female, which has a very different appear- 
ance. 
4. A true Icterus of a deep black wich violet reflections, sharp-pointed and some-* 
what arcuated beak, whose tail is hollowed out like a boat. It is the Boat-tailed 
Grakle of Penn. and Latham, which both those gentlemen consider as synonymous 
with the Graculu barita, and yet it. certainly is the bird of Catesb. pl. 12, of which 
Lin. made his. Gracula quiscala; but Catesby has given a bad drawing of the beak. 
_5, A black bird with violet and green reflections, somewhat cuneiform, (etagée), 
tail, and the beak of an Icterus, but more arcuated near the point, &c. 
_N,B. The bird quoted from Wils., II, xxi, 4, is nota Ploceus., It is the Quis- 
calus versicolor, Bonap-, or the Gracula quiscala, L. Am. Ed. 
feo. Vor. L 2 N af ia 
3 
