BIKDS OP NOBTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 275 



Icterus lavidaMlis Sclatek, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond., 1871, 270, pi. 21 (Santa Lucia, 

 Lesser Antilles; coll. P. L. Sclater); 1872, 649; 1889, 395; Ibis, 1883, 361 

 (monogr.); Oat. Birds Brit. Mus., xi, 1886, 372.— Allen, Bull. Nutt. Orn. 

 Club, V, 1880, 166.— Goby, Auk, iii, 1886, 217 (synonymy and diagnosis); 

 Birds W. I., 1889, 104; Cat. W. I. Birds, 1892; 15, 110, 133.— Ridgway, 

 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., xii,.1890, 130. 



[Icterus'] laudabilis Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 36.— Cory, List 

 Birds W. I., 1885, 13. 



ICTERUS SPURIUS (Linnseus). 

 OROEARS ORIOLE. 



Adult male in spring and summer. — Head, neck, median portion of 

 upper chest, back, and scapulars, uniform black; wings (except lesser 

 and middle coverts) black, with narrow whitish edgings; tail black, 

 the extreme base abruptly yellowish; rump, upper tail-coverts, lesser 

 and middle wing-coverts, and under parts of body (including under 

 wing-coverts) uniform rich chestnut, often deepening into bay on 

 breast, etc., the rump and upper tail-coverts inclining to burnt sienna; 

 bill black with basal half of mandible bluish (pale grayish blue or 

 bluish white in life); iris brown; legs and feet dusky horn color in 

 dried skins. 



Adult male in autum,n and winter. — Similar to the spring and sum- 

 mer plumage, but scapulars and interscapulars (sometimes feathers of 

 head and neck also) margined with buffy grayish, light olive, or chest- 

 nut, and those of the chestnut under parts (sometimes) indistinctly 

 tipped or margined with yellowish. 



Adult female in spring and summer. — Above yellowish olive-green, 

 becoming lighter and more yellowish on upper tail-coverts and tail, the 

 back duller, with feathers indistinctly darker centrally; under parts 

 dull canary yellow, tinged with olive on sides and flanks; wings dusky, 

 all the feathers margined with light olive-grayish (these edgings 

 approaching white on longer primaries), the middle and greater cov- 

 erts broadly tipped with dull whitish, forming two bands. 



Male in second year. — Similar to adult female, but lores, anterior 

 portion of malar region, chin, and throat black.* 



Young (both sexes) in first plwnage. — Similar to the adult female, 

 but lighter wing-markings tinged with buff. 



Adult mafe.— Length (skins), 147.3-165.1 (157.7); wing, 73.9-82.6 

 (78.2); tail, 63.5-74.9 (69.1); exposed culmen, 15-17.5 (16.3); depth of 

 bill at base. 6.6-7.9 (7.6); tarsus. 20.6-22.9 (21.6); middle toe, 13-16.5 

 (15).^ 



Adult female.— hengih. (skins), 149.9-160 (154.4); wing, 68.6-77.5 



* Breeds in this plumage. Males more than one year old, but not yet fully adult, are 

 variously intermediate between this black-throated yellow plumage and the fully 

 adult livery as described above, 



' Thirty specimens. 



