LEI8TES.— ICTEEIJS. 459 



Fusoesoente-niger plerumque oohraceo indistincte striatus ; cauda frequenter pallide fuseo transvittata, campterio 

 alari et corpore medio subtus a mento ad medium ventrem ooccineis ; rostro corneo, pedibus corylinis. 

 Long, tota 6-5, al» 3-6, caudae 2-4, rostri a rictu 0-75, tarsi 1-1, 

 ? supra nigricanB, ceryino variegata, stria verticali superciliis efc corpore subtus cervinis, pectoris lateribus 

 et hypochondriis nigro guttulatis ; campterio alari coccineo, rostro pallide corneo. Long, tota 5-4, ate 

 3-2, caudffi 2-0, (Descr. maris et feminse ex Mina Chorcba, Panama. Mus. nostr.) 



Eah. Panama, Mina de Chorcha {Arc6^), Lion Hill {M'Leanmn<^).—^omB. America 

 from Colombia ^ to Ecuador «, Amazons Valley «, and Guiana 1 3. 



A well-known species of the northern portion of South America, ranging across the 

 continent from the mouth of the Amazon to Ecuador and Colombia ; it just enters our 

 region in the State of Panama, whence we have specimens both from the line of the 

 railway and from the neighbourhood of Chiriqui. Nothing has been recorded of its 

 habits. 



Subfam. IV. ICTERINjE. 



Nares plus minusve membrano obtectae ; mesorhinium altum, baud dilatatum, rotundatum ; tarsi breves, cauda 

 rotuudata. 



ICTERUS. 

 Icterus, Brisson, Orn. ii. p. 85 (1760) ; Scl. Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 362. 



It is now, we believe, generally admitted that the genus Icterus cannot be satisfac- 

 torily divided, though several attempts have been made to do so. Cassin, who carried 

 this subdivision to the greatest extent, split up Icterus into three genera, and each of 

 these into a number of sections or subgenera ; but this treatment of the genus has not 

 met with much favour. Mr. Sclater, in the ' Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,' 

 vol. xi., placed all these names as synonyms oi Icterus, and adopted the three sections of 

 it tentatively proposed by Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Eidgway in the ' History of North- 

 American Birds.' The definitions of these divisions are hardly satisfactory, for it wiU 

 be seen that the first (A) and the third (C) only differ by one having the culmen and 

 gonys " straight " and the other " nearly straight," and this character is hardly borne 

 out by an examination of specimens. 



So intimately connected are the extreme forms of Icterus that we do not see our way 

 to attempt grouping them by any but colour-characteristics, and such as are shown by 

 the difference or similarity of the sexes. These are mere guides to the determination 

 of the species, and only serve to indicate the relationship of the species grouped together, 

 rather than that of the groups themselves. 



The species of Icterus are for the most part very well defined, if we make some allow- 

 ance for differences of size and intensity of colour. 



Of the thirty-eight species included in Mr. Sclater's Catalogue, to which we now add 

 one, no less than nineteen belong to our region *. The rest are distributed throughout 



* The habitat, Panama, of I. dubusi is not sufficiently authentic for us to include the species in this work. 



58* 



