225

THE



Hvicultural fllbacjasme,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series— VOL. V. — NO. 8. — All rights reserved. JUNE, 1907.


THE COMMON HANGNEST.


Icterus vulgaris (lemoneus).

By Arthur G. Butler, Ph.D. etc.


In October 1902 I wrote an article in the Magazine upon

the Brazilian Hangnest {Icterus jamacaii) in which I described

two birds, the first received in 1897 was in bad condition, and did

not live quite a fortnight ; the second, which I then supposed to

be the same species, in 1899 ; the latter, however, is a fine speci-

men of the Common Hangnest, and differs in the yellowish-

white colouring of the median coverts, those of /. jamacaii

being black. .


It is evident that these two species are sold, without dis-

crimination, under the name of " Brazilian Hangnest." Both, in

their fully adult plumage are more or less deep golden orange

(in what I take to be old birds, inclining to orauge-vermillion in

certain parts of their plumage), the head, throat, breast-plumes,

interscapulum, greater part of wings and tail black; both have

a more or less white belt across the wing, but in I. jamacaii,

owing to the blackish median coverts, it is narrow, whereas in

/. vulgaris it is broad. Both have black bills, with a large patch

of whitish ash at the base of the lower mandible ; both have a

pearl-grey orbital naked patch which extends for some distance

behind the eye and pearl-grey feet, yellowish at the proximal

end of the tarso-metatarsus ; iris transparent bone-yellow ; in

the females the bills are considerably, nearly half an inch,

shorter than in the males, and they are slightly smaller birds.


The Common Hangnest is said to come from the Coast-

region of Colombia and Venezuela and Trinidad, whereas the



