478 icteeidj:. 



song, and more especially the gay plumage of a fully adult male, render it a con- 

 spicuous bird among the feathered songsters of its native woods. 



" The nests are generally suspended from a bough, slender branch, or recumbent twig 

 of the acacia-tree, protected from the intense rays of the sun by the beautiful canopy of 

 its fringed foliaged branches. Such a tree as the tamarind acacia is often selected, and 

 one or two nests are sometimes seen swaying in the breeze, beneath the generous shade 

 of this perennial beauty of the forest. The nest is composed of the thread-like or 

 elastic fibres of the maguey plant. I have seen some in which the cotton-thread and 

 twine were component parts of its elastic and firm structure. The nests are of various 

 lengths, conformable to the materials at hand for the intricate formation of the warp 

 necessary for the weaving this unique and airy abode in which to rear their little family. 

 The inside bottom is lined with the downy substance of the tree cotton intermixed with 

 a few feathers. In one nest I found an entire skein of yellow silk which it had doubt- 

 less picked up where some village brunette had dropped it. 



" The eggs are generally five in number, rather long, of a pale blue ground, with 

 numerous hieroglyphic scratches confluent round the larger end." 



•y. Dorsum medium fere omnino flavum. 

 19. Icterus graysoni. 



Icterus graysoni, Cassin, Pr. Ac. Phil. 1867^ p. 48^ j Grayson, Pr. Bost. See. N. H. xiv. p. 280^; 

 Rnsch, Abh. nat. Ver. zu Bremen, 1870, p. 336 ' ; Lawr. Mem. Bost. Soc. N. H. ii. p. 280 * j 

 Scl. Ibis, 1883, p. 374 = ; Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xi. p. 387 '. 



Plavo-aurantius, subtus clarior ; loris et gutture medio nigris ; interscapulio maciilis parvis nigris omato ; alis 

 nigris albo marginatis, harum tectricibus minoribus flavis nigro guttatis ; cauda nigra ad basin flavido-alba, 

 reotricibus quatuor utrinque externis albido terminatis ; rostro corneo, pedibus nigricantibus. Long, tota 7*5, 

 alsB 4-0, caudsB 3-2, rostri a rictu 1-0, tarsi 1*0. 



5 supra olivacea, subtus flavida ; alis fuscis albido limbatis ; cauda olivacea ; loris et gutture medio nigri- 

 cantibus. (Descr. maris et feminse ex insulis Tres Marias. Mus. nostr.) 



Hob. Mexico, Tres Marias Islands (Grayson ^^^, Forrer ^). 



As yet Icterus graysoni is only known to occur on the Tres Marias Islands, oif the 

 coast of Western Mexico, where the late Col. A. J. Grayson discovered it, and where 

 Mr. Alphonse Forrer subsequently found it. To the latter naturalist we are indebted 

 for the specimens we possess. Some of Grayson's specimens were fully described by 

 Cassin, and others at great length by Dr. Finsch. The discoverer of this interesting 

 species has published the following notes respecting it ^ : — 



" This superb Oriole is one of the most beautiful of its kind and is entirely confined 

 to the islands of the Tres Marias, where it is the only representative of its genus. There 

 is a closely allied variety on the main coast (Icterus pustulatus), but on comparing the 

 two the difference in the marking is at once observable, as also the larger size of the 

 island bird .... The nest of this Oriole, like that of all of its congeners, is pensile ; 



