4 RED- AND- WHITE- WINGED TROOPIAL. 



seen associated with the Cow Birds, Common Grakles, Red-wings, and 

 a small species with an orange-yellow head, flitting about in quest of 

 food, or perching on the orchard trees in the town, where they keep up 

 an incessant chatter and discordant confused warble, much more harsh 

 or guttural than the note of the Cow-bird. They are also common 

 around Monterey. With the female, and the circumstances of breed- 

 ing, I am not acquainted." 



Icterus tricoloe. 



Adult Male. Plate CCCLXXXVIII. Fig. 1. 



Bill nearly as long as the head, conical, straight, moderately stout, 

 tapering to a fine point ; upper mandible with the dorsal line nearly 

 straight, being a little convex at the base, the ridge a little flattened 

 toward the base, where it runs into a short tapering process, the sides 

 rounded, the edges inflected, the tip a little depressed ; lower mandible 

 higher at the base than the upper, with the angle rather short and wide, 

 the sides rather flat at the base, convex toward the end, the edges in- 

 flected, the tip acute ; the gape-line straight, but at the base deflected. 

 Nostrils oval, in the fore part of the short nasal depression. 



Head of moderate size, ovate, with the forehead flattened ; neck 

 short ; body moderately stout. Feet of ordinary length ; tarsus rather 

 stout, compressed, with seven large anterior scutella, of which the up- 

 per are blended, and two lateral plates meeting at an acute angle be- 

 hind ; toes rather large, compressed, the first much stronger, the outer 

 a little shorter than the inner ; claws large, arched, compressed, acute. 



Plumage soft, blended, glossy, the feathers ovate and rounded. 

 Wings of ordinary length, the second and third quills longest and 

 equal, the first shorter than the fourth ; the outer secondaries abrupt, 

 and slightly repand. Tail of twelve broadly rounded feathers, rather 

 long, almost even, the lateral feathers being only two-twelfths of an 

 inch shorter than the longest. 



Bill and feet black, iris hazel. The general colour of the plumage 

 is glossy bluish-black ; the smaller wing-coverts deep carmine, their 

 lower row white. 



Length to end of tail 9 inches ; bill along the ridge \^ ; wing from 

 flexure 5 ; tail Si's ; tarsus 1^^ ; hind toe ||, its claw i\ ; second toe j%i 

 its claw j\i ; third toe i°^, its claw /^ ; fourth toe % ; its claw /j. 



