476 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Of the type specimens, No. 20915 (PI. 6, Fig. 30), from a set of five, taken 

 by Dr. James C. Merrill, United States Army, near Fort Brown, Texas, on June 

 16, 1877, shows the most common style of markings, but these are usually 

 heaviest about the larger end, while in this specimen, the only one I have seen 

 so marked, they are concentrated about the smaller end of the egg. The shape 

 of this egg is also rather peculiar, and it is the smallest in the series. No. 25343, 

 (PI. 6, Fig. 31), from a set of four, taken May 13, 1889, near Hidalgo, Texas, 

 represents a rather odd and unusual style of markings; while No. 25547 (PI. 6, 

 Fig. 32), from a set of five, taken near Brownsville, Texas, on May 3, 1892, 

 represents an egg above the average size and shows some of the darker colors 

 referred to above. The last two are from the Ralph collection. The eggs 

 figured of the Arizona Hooded Oriole will also answer for extremely heavily 

 colored specimens of this race. 



187. Icterus cucullatus nelsoni Ridgway. 



ARIZONA HOODED ORIOLE. 



Icterus cucullatus nelsoni Ridgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VIII, No. 2, 

 April 20, 1885, 19. 



(B — , G — , R — , C — , U 505a.) 



Geographical range: Northwestern Mexico and Lower California; north to south- 

 western New Mexico, Arizona, and the southern half of California, west of the Sierra 

 Nevadas only. 



The breeding raug'e of the Arizona Hooded Oriole, also locally known in 

 southern California as the "Palmleaf Oriole," is coextensive with its g'eograph- 

 cal distribution within the United States, and is restricted to our southwestern 

 border from the extreme southwestern corner of New Mexico (where Dr. Edgar 

 A. Mearns, United States Army, obtained a single specimen in the Guadalupe 

 Canyon, near the Mexican boundary line, on October 4, 1893), which marks 

 the eastern limit of its known range in this direction, through southern Arizona 

 and California, north in this State to about latitude 38° 45', where it is known 

 to occur sparingly as far north as Auburn, Placer County. While the range of 

 Scott's Oriole in California seems to be confined to the eastern or desert slope 

 of the mountains, that of the Arizona Hooded Oriole appears to be strictly 

 limited to the western slope, and it has not yet been found anywhere in the 

 Colorado and adjoining deserts. 



According to Mr. Walter E. Bryant, it is generally distributed over the 

 Peninsula, of Lower California, particularly in the vicinity of water and ol 

 human habitations. He found them on Santa Margarita Island in January. At 

 Comondu they were nesting in the palm trees. A young one, caged, at San Fer- 

 nando, was fed by the male parent.^ 



' Birds of Lower California, California Academy of Sciences, Vol. II, 1889, p. 295. 



