472 ICTEEID^. 



Mugeres I. (Gaumer), Cozumel I. (Benedict ^^, Gaunter^); British Hondueas, 

 Belize((9. ^.6).— CuBAii. 



Mr. Eidgway has recently proposed a division of Icterus cucullatus into three races i^, 

 retaining the name /. cucullatus for the bird of Central Mexico and the Eio Grande 

 valley, calling the bird from Arizona and Lower California /. cucullatus nelsoni, and 

 that from Yucatan /. c. igneus. Whilst recognizing the distinction of the Arizona 

 bird, we have not succeeded in separating the Yucatan bird from that of Eastern 

 Mexico. Mr. Gaumer has recently sent us a good series of specimens from Yucatan 

 and the islands off the coast, and amongst these we find every gradation of colour, from 

 almost a blood-orange tint, which suggested the name igneus to Mr. Eidgway, to the 

 ordinary colour of the typical bird. A male shot by Salvin at Belize in December 1857 

 is quite typical. 



In Texas I. cucullatus appears to be a common bird. Mr. Sennett says that it is 

 more plentiful than all the rest of the genus combined in the neighbourhood of Browns- 

 ville and Hidalgo as well as at Lomita. 



The nest appears to be nearly always placed in a bunch of Spanish moss (Tillandsia), 

 which material is used in its construction, and interwoven with the living plant in the 

 dexterous way for which members of this genus are noted. The eggs are described 

 as white tinged with blue or buff, and nearly covered with scattered fine brown spots, 

 with larger blotches of the same colour at the large end. In the State of Vera Cruz, 

 Sumichrast says it is a bird of the hot region, rarely found above an elevation of 

 2000 feet. In Yucatan and the joining islands it lives close to the sea-level. We never 

 met with it in the interior of Guatemala. It has been noticed in Cuba according to 

 Dr. Gundlach ". 



13. Icterus nelsoni. 



Icterus cucullatus nelsoni, Ridgw. Pr. U. S. Nat. Mus. viii. p. 19 \ 



Icterus cucullatus, Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 379^; Scott, Auk, ii. p. 159'. 



J. cucullato similis, sed colore aurantio magis sordido, fronte ipsa haud nigra, alis extus albicantioribus, forsan 

 distinguendus. 



Eah. NoETH America, Arizona 3, Lower California i. — Mexico, Mazatlan {Grayson^, 

 Forrer), plains of Colima [Xantus), Western Mexico {Retouch). 



We have three male specimens of this Oriole — one from La Paz in Lower California, 

 one from Mazatlan in Western Mexico, both collected by Mr. Alphonse Forrer, and one 

 from Western Mexico by M. Eebouch. We have no difficulty in ascribing them to the 

 race recently separated by Mr. Eidgway as Icterus cucullatus nelsoni, a close ally of 

 J. cucullatus, but, according to Mr. Eidgway, separable by constant characters as shown 

 by thirty specimens examined by him. On this point we have only to remark that if 

 the characters are constant, two names instead of three are sufficient for purposes of 

 nomenclature. 



