222 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



lower Saskatchewan, very abundant).— Dwight, Auk, x, 1893, 1.0 (Prince 

 Edward I., breeding).— Todd, Auk, x, 1893, 39 (Indiana and Clearfield 

 counties, w. Pennsylvania, breeding) .—Bkimley, Auk, x, 1893, 242 (Bun- 

 combe Co., North Carolina, Mar. 16; Raleigh, Nov. 26).— Deacon, Biol. 

 Rev. Ontario, i, 1894, 69 (Prince Albert, Northwest Territory, very abt., 

 breeding; descr. nest and eggs).— Tiiokne, Auk, xii, 1895, 216 (Fort Keogh, 

 Montana, breeding).— Piers, Trans. Nova Scot. Inst. ScL, ser. 2, i, 1895, 407 

 (Nova Scotia, rare).— Bendire, Life Hist. N. Am. Birds, ii, 1895, 501, pi. 7, 

 figs. 26, 27 (eggs).— Baily, Auk, xiii, 1896, 294 (Elk Co., w. Pennsylvania, 

 breeding).— CooKE, Birds Col., 1897, 95 (Colorado, summer resid. e. of 

 mts.).— Rives, Auk, xv, 1898, 135 (Spruce belt, West Virginia).— Beyer, 

 Proc, Louis. Soc. Nat. for 1897-99 (1900), 106 (breeding near Madisonville, 

 St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana). 



Qluiscalus] quiscula laieus Ridgway, Man. N. Am. Birds, 1887, 380. 



l^Quhcalus versicolor'] b. Subsp. xnea Sclater, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, 

 395, in list of specimens (Pembina, Dakota; Fort Dufferin, and Fort Simp- 

 son, Brit. America; "Arctic America"). 



Quiscalus quiscula (not Gracula quiscula Linnwus) Brittaix and Cox, Auk, v, 

 1889, 117 (Restigouche Valley, New Brunswick).— Hatch, Birds Minnesota, 

 1892, 288.— Nehbling, Our Native Birds, etc., ii, 1896, 304, part, pi. 17, 

 fig. 6. 



Genus HOLOQUISCALUS Cassin. 



{'!)Scaphidurus (not of Swainson, 1827) Swainson, Fauna Bor.-Am., ii, 1831, 

 App. 1, 494. (Type, " Oriolusniger Auct," i. e., of Boddaert?)' 



Holoquiscalus Cassin, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., xviii, Dec, 1866, 404. (Type, 

 Gracula barita Linnaeus, ^ Sturnus jamaicemis Daudin?) 



Medium-sized or rather small semiterrestrial Icteridse with plicate 

 tail ^ (decidedly shorter than wing and graduated for much less than 

 one-third, usually less than one-fourth, its length), and with the median 

 palatal ridge beveled off anteriorly. 



Bill about as long as head, elongate-conical, with tip more or less 

 decurved, its depth at base much less than one-half the exposed culmen, 

 little if any more (usually slightly less) than half the distance from 

 nostril to tip of maxilla, its basal width a little less; culmen nearly 

 straight to near tip, where riiore or less strongly decurved, the basal 

 portion sometimes slightly elevated and arched; the culmen ridged, 

 the ridge narrow but rounded; gonys nearly straight, slightly but 

 decidedly shorter than maxilla from nostril; maxillary tomium more 



' The characters given apply only in part to this genus. This citation of Scaphidu- 

 rus Swainson is placed by Sclater (Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, p. 329) under Cas- 

 sidix, but while the description of the bill in Swainson's diagnosis applies well 

 enough to Cassidix, the phrase "tail graduated, boat-shaped," certainly does not, but 

 evidently doee to a member of the Quigcaline group. 



^In H. gundlachii, at least, the tail is said to be "permanently keeled; thatia, ia. 

 wedge-shaped even when the bird is at rest. In flying it ia expanded Vertically, and 

 measures 4 to 5 inches in depth at the tip. This gives them a most ludicrous appear- 

 ance, which is heightened by their fluttering, labored flight. Indeed, when on the 

 wing they resemble miniature flying machines." (Chapman, Bull. Am. Mus., iv, 

 1892, p. 306. ) 



