VELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 187 
The young of this species are very similar to the female; the 
young male gradually changing to the rich adult covering. 
The yellow-headed troopials assemble in dense flocks, which, 
in all their varied movements and evolutions, present appear- 
ances similar to those of the red-winged, which have been so 
well described by Wilson. ‘They are much on the ground, 
like the cow-troopial (cow-bunting of Wilson) ; on dissection, 
their stomachs have been found filled with fragments of small 
insects, which seem to constitute their chief food, though 
doubtless they also feed on vegetable substances, Their notes 
resemble those of the red-winged troopial, but are more musi- 
cal. The range of the yellow-headed troopial is very extensive, 
as it is found from Cayenne to the river Missouri; although 
it passes far north in the western region, yet it does not visit 
the settled parts of the United States, 
The fine specimens represented in our plate were killed near 
the Pawnee villages, on the river Platte, where they were seen 
in great numbers about the middle of May. The males and 
females were sometimes observed in separate flocks. 
We adopt the genus Jcterus, nearly as it was established by 
Brisson, and accepted by Daudin and Temminck. Authors 
have variously estimated this genus, both in regard to its de- 
nomination and limits. One of Wilson’s most important 
nomenclatural errors consisted in placing one of the species 
under the genus Sturnus, with which it has but little simi- 
larity, if we except some of its habits, and particularly its ¢re- 
garious disposition. Linné considered these birds as Oriola, 
in which he was followed by Gmelin and Latham, notwith- 
standing the remarkable difference existing between them and 
the Oriolus galbula of Kurope, the type of that genus. Llliger, 
and some other naturalists, considering that bird a Coracvas, 
appropriated the name of Orzolus to our Icterws, and separated 
from it the largest species, which he called Cassicz. Linné 
had declared all generic names previously given to arts, dis- 
eases, &c., to be inadmissible in natural history; Illiger, on 
