ORDER PASSERES. 133 



Textor Alecto. Temni. Tisserin Alecto. PI. Col. 

 446. 



Corneous protuberances at the base of the bill ; exter- 

 nally, the plumage lustrous-black ; white for half the 

 length of the feathers within. Length, nine inches, 

 six lines. Galam. Western Africa. 

 Some of these birds approximate their nests 

 together in great quantities, so as to form, in one 

 mass, several compartments. 



Such is. 

 The Sociable grosbeak. (^Loxia Socia, Lath.) Paters. 

 Voy. pi. XIX. 



Olive brown ; yellow underneath ; head and quills 

 brown or blackish. 



The Surinam Crow. Lath. Rice Oriole id. Petit 

 Choucas de Surinam, de la Jamaique, Cassique Noir, 

 Sfc. ( Oriolus niger. Or. oryzivorus, Corvus Suri- 

 namensis. Gm.) Enl. 534. Brown. lUustr. X. 

 Wilson. Am. III. xxi. 4. 



Which devastates, in innumerable flocks, the fields 

 of many of the warmest regions of America. Its gene- 

 ral colour is black, changing into magnificent re- 

 flexions of aU the tints of burnished steel.* 



* Nomehclators have not yet been able to put in order the black birds 

 of America, which approximate more or less to the Cassiques, because the 

 descriptions given by travellers are insufficient for the purpose. 



We think it proper in this place, to point out the principal ones, and also 

 what is most clear in their synonymy. 



1. The black and mantled Cassique, mentioned below among the 

 Cassiques. 



2. Tlie bird (above mentioned), well drawn, but painte 1 without re- 

 flexions, Enl. 534., and cited under Oriolus Niger. Onolus Ludovicia- 

 nus. Enl. 646, is only an albine variety of this. It is evidently Corvus 



