466 LIFE HISTOKIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



182. Icterus icterus (Linnaeus). 



TEOUPIAL 



Oriolus icterus Linnaeus, System* Naturae, ed. 12, 1, 1766, 161. 

 Icterus icterus Ridgway, Proceedings U. S. National Museum, VIII, 18S5, 355. 

 (B 40S, — , R 265, C 323, D" (502).) • 



Geographical range : Coast regions of Colombia and Venezuela, South America, 

 aud the Island of Trinidad. (West Indies; introduced.) Accidental in South Carolina 

 (Charleston). 



The Troupial, a South American species, can only be considered a straggler 

 in the United States, and is admitted to our fauna on the strength of a single 

 specimen shot by Mr. John H. Audubon in Charleston, South Carolina. Very 

 little has yet been written on the life history of this bird. It is said to be a com- 

 mon resident of the coast districts of Colombia and Venezuela, South America, 

 and of the Island of Trinidad, and to be an accidental visitor to some of the West 

 India islands. Its eggs, usually four in number, are described as having a 

 ground color of reddish drab, and as being very generally blotched with mark- 

 ings of a deep claret brown and faint purple, the markings being deeper and 

 larger at one end. The nest is said to be a long, pensile structure, suspended 

 from slender limbs of trees and difficult to reach. There are no eggs of this 

 species in the United States National Museum collection. 



183. Icterus gularis Wagler. 



GULAR ORIOLE. 



Icterus gularis Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 754. 



( B -, C -, R -, C -, U -.) 



Geographical range : From Honduras and. Guatemala, Central America, through 

 southern Mexico; north to the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico, and southern Louisiana. 



This large and handsome Oriole claims a place in our fauna from the fact 

 that a specimen was obtained in southern Louisiana, which I recorded in "The 

 Auk" (Vol. X, pp. 366, 367), and which I supposed at the time to be referable to 

 Icterus gularis yucatanensis (Von Berlepsch), on the strength of Mr. R. Ridgway's 

 identification. He has since changed his opinion and writes as follows: "The 

 identification was made when the series of specimens in the National Museum 

 collection of both forms was very meager, and was based on color alone, the 

 intense orange being supposed to be peculiar to the Yucatan bird. A fine 

 series of the latter, subsequently received from Dr. Graumer, as well as a con- 

 siderable number of true gularis from eastern Mexico, shows that the supposed 

 color difference, while in the main reliable, is not a constant character, but that 

 there is a constant and very decided difference in the proportions between the 

 two forms which will serve to readily separate them. The Louisiana specimen 



