BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 169 



at base, 7.9-8.4 (8.1); tarsus, 23.6-27.2 (25.1); middle toe, 16-17.5 

 (16.5).' 



Costa Eica (Angostura; Jimenez) and southward through western 

 Colombia to western Ecuador (Guayaquil). 



Tachyphonus, sp., Cassin, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila.. 1860, ]42 'Rio Truando, n. 

 Colombia) . 



Tachyphonus cassinii Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vii, 1861, 297 (Lion 

 Hill, Panama R. R.; coll. G. N. Lawrence); ix, 1868, 101 (Angostura, Costa 

 Rica).— Frantzihs, Journ. fiir Orn., 1869, 299 (Costa Rica). 



Eucovieiis casmdi Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1864, 351, pi. 30 

 (Lion Hill).— Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1867, 139 (Santiago, Veragua). 



Eiicometis cassini Sclater and Salvin, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1879, 503 (Neche, 

 prov. Antioquia, Colombia).— Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., 

 Aves, i, 1883, 307.— Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, 219.— Zeledon, 

 Anal. Mus. Nac. Costa Rica, i, 1887, 110 (Costa Rica).— Ridgway, Proc. U. 

 S. Nat. Mus., xiv, 1891, 473 (Jimenez, Costa Rica; descr. young). 



[Eucometis} cassini Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 23. 



Mitrospingus cassini Bangs, Proc. New Engl. Zool. Club, ii, 1900, 29 (Loma del 

 Leon, Panama R. R. ). 



Family ICTERID^. 



THE TR0UPIALS.2 



Nine-primaried, conirostral, acutiplantar Oscines without obvious 

 rictal bristles.' 



Bill very variable as to relative length and thickness, but never con- 

 spicuously longer than the head and always more or less conical and 

 acute; usually with nearly straight outlines, but sometimes with the 

 tip rather strongly, but never (except in some Quisccdi) abruptly, 

 decurved; its depth at base never equal to distance from nostril to tip 

 of maxilla, and thegonys always more or less shorter than the same 

 measurement; eulmen usually more or less elevated basallj', some- 

 times expanded or swollen into a conspicuous ' ' frontal shield " or 



'Three specimens, all from Isthmus of Panama. An adult female from Guayaquil 

 is smaller than any of the Panama specimens, measuring as follows: Wing, 83.6; 

 tail, 71.9; exposed eulmen, 17.3; depth of bill at base, 8.1; tarsus, 26.2; middle toe, 

 16.8. I can detect no differences in coloration. 



''A satisfactory vernacular name for this family has hitherto been wanting. The group 

 has been known by the name of Hang-nests, but only species of certain genera build 

 pensile nests; as the American Orioles or American Starlings, on account of super- 

 ficial resemblance of only a very small percentage of its members to the Old World 

 Orioles (OriolidEe) and Starlings (Sturnida^). Other names which have been used, 

 either for the group as a whole or for particular genera, as Grackle, Crow Blackbird, 

 etc., are equally nondistinctive or of limited pertinence. The name Troupial, which 

 ia here adopted, has more general applicability than any other term, with possibly 

 the exception of Cacique, but it seems best to restrict the latter to the group to which 

 it specially belongs. 



'These are faintly developed, however, in the oropendolas and caciques (genera 

 Ocyalus, Clypicterus, Zarhynchus, Gymnostinops, Cacicus, etc.). 



