ICTEEUS. 465 



Jalapa {de Oca ^% Playa Vicente {Boucard 3), Chihuitan, Santa Eiigenia, Tehuan- 

 tepee city [Sumichrast 27), Jolbox I., Cozumel I. {G. F. Gaumer ^) ; British Hon- 

 duras, Belize {Blancaneaux) ; Guatemala ( Fe^asg'wz ^^ Constancia'^^, Skinner ^'^), 

 Duenas 22, Eetalhuleu, Coban 22, and Escuintla, and throughout the Costa Grande 

 in January and February, Cahabon \ Choctum {0. S. & F. B. G.) ; Honduras, 

 Euatan I. (G. F. Gaumer), San Pedro {G. M. Whitely^) ; Nicaragua, Omotepe I. 

 {Nutting ^^) ; Costa Eica {v. Frantzius is i7), San Jose {v. Frantzius i^ Carmiol ^^), 

 Irazu (Rogers^); Panama, David {HicJcs% Lion-Hill Station (M'Leannan^ ^'^), 

 Line of Eailway (Arce 4).— Colombia, Atrato 20 ; Cuba 12. 



As will be seen from the above list of localities. Icterus spurius is a very widely 

 distributed and common species throughout our region, where it lives during the 

 winter season. It breeds on the Texan side of the Eio Grande valley ; but whether it 

 does so in any portion of Mexico remains yet to be. proved. It hardly passes beyond 

 our limits in its southern migration. We are not aware that it ever occurs in the trade 

 collections made in the interior of Colombia, nor did Salmon meet with it in the Cauca 

 valley ; but a single male was obtained during Lieut. Michler's exploring expedition on 

 the banks of the Atrato, and .Dr. Cabanis records a young bird from Cartagena ^^. It 

 also occurs in Cuba, but apparently in no great numbers, though it is abundant on the 

 coast of Yucatan and the adjoining islands. In Guatemala we not unfrequently met with 

 young males moulting into their adult plumage ; but it is not clear to us by what 

 sequence of change of feathers this process is carried out. We have young males in 

 the female plumage, but with black throats and a few of the chestnut feathers just 

 showing, which were shot in November and December; others, again, killed in August 

 and the beginning of September, have nearly assumed their fully adult plumage, 

 though the black feathers of the upper surface are broadly edged with pale brown. 

 From the state of the plumage of these birds it would seem that they were in very 

 rapid moult when they were killed. 



Birds of this species were observed at Duenas to be common in July, and it is therefore 

 more than probable that they were birds that bred in the neighbourhood and their 

 young broods ; but we never observed their nests. As regards the peculiarities of the 

 moulting-periods of this species generally, it may be that birds reared in the highlands 

 of Guatemala moult at a different season from those which migrate northwards ; but 

 this is only a suggestion, for the point requires further investigation. 



The nest is usually formed of long flexible grasses, which are dexterously woven 

 together ; the depth does not exceed three inches, but this depends to some extent on 

 the stability of the branches of the tree to which they are attached. The eggs are pale 

 bluish white, blotched with pale purple, and splashed at the larger end with markings 

 of dark purple-brown. 



BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Aves, Vol. I., April 1887. 59 



