ICTERUS. 377 
quills and secondaries (the middle coverts sometimes whitish), and tail 
black across middle portion. 
Adult male: Head, neck, middle line of chest, back, scapulars, wings 
(except lesser and middle coverts), and greater part of tail black; 
broad tips to greater wing-coverts, and narrow edgings to some of 
the quills and secondaries (these sometimes worn away), white; rest 
of plumage, including lesser and middle wing-coverts, base and tip 
of tail (except middle feathers—but on outer feathers occupying 
nearly half their total length), rich cadmium-orange, sometimes 
varying to intense orange-red, very rarely to lemon-yellow. Adult 
female: Very variable in color, but usually (?) with upper parts 
olive, indistinctly streaked or spotted with black, the wings dusky, 
with two white bands, and light grayish edges to most of the 
feathers; rump dull ochraceous-orange ; tail duller, more olivaceous, 
orange; lower parts dull orange, paler on flanks, the throat usually 
with more or less admixture of black. [MVote-—The adult female 
often has the black pattern of head, neck, and back as in male, but 
the color much duller and less uniform. The young male also varies 
between the two extremes (adult male and female) as described 
above, and cannot in any stage be with certainty distinguished 
from the adult female except by dissection.] Young of year: Simi- 
lar to adult female, as described above, but colors softer and more 
blended, and upper parts suffused with brownish. Length about 
7.00-8.15, wing 3.50-3.90, tail 2.85-3.35. Mest more or less purse- 
shaped and pensile, suspended from extremity of drooping branches, 
composed of various textile substances, as various natural. plant- 
fibres, strings, etc., compactly interwoven, the nest proper com- 
posed of softer materials arranged within the supporting pouch. 
Eggs 3-6, 91 X .61, dull white, greenish white, or brownish 
white, curiously streaked or irregularly “pen-lined” with brown 
and black, sometimes mixed with brown spots or stains. Hab. 
Eastern North America, north to New England, Ontario, and the 
Saskatchewan, west across Great Plains; south, in winter, through 
eastern Mexico and Central America to Panama. 
507. I. galbula (Linn.). Baltimore Oriole. 
b%, Wing not less than 3.80 (in adult), tail not less than 3.10 (averaging de- 
cidedly more) ; adult males with whole malar region yellow or orange, 
an orange streak over lores (sometimes prolonged into a superciliary 
stripe), lesser wing-coverts entirely, or for the greater part, black, white 
of wings covering whole of middle and outer webs of greater coverts, 
besides very broad edges to tertials and secondaries, and tail yellow or 
orange, with middle feathers and tips of the others black. 
c. Adult male: Forehead, distinct superciliary stripe, ear-coverts, sides, and 
flanks yellow or orange; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 
yellow or orange, more or less tinged with olive. Adult female: Top 
48 
