176 
OMNIVOROUS BIRDS. 
YELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 
(Icterus icterocephalus, Bonap. Am. Orn. i. p. 26. pi. 4. [male], fig. 
2. [female]. Philad. Museum, No. 1528, 1529.) 
Sf. Charact. — Black ; head, neck, and breast yellow-orange ; with 
a white spot on the wing. — Female and young dark brown ; 
wings without spots ; throat whitish ; also a rounded yellow patch 
on the breast. 
The Yellow-headed Blackbird or Troopial, though 
long known as an inhabitant of South America, was only 
recently added to the Fauna of the United States by 
Major Long’s expedition. They were seen in great 
numbers near the banks of the River Platte, around the 
villages of the Pawnees, about the middle of May ; and 
the different sexes were sometimes observed associated in 
separate flocks, as the breeding season had not yet proba- 
bly commenced. The range of this fine species is, ap- 
parently, from Cayenne, in tropical America, to the banks 
of the river Missouri : though I have never seen them 
near that river in an excursion of 1606 miles. At all 
events, its visits are yet wholly confined to the west side 
of the Mississippi, beyond which, not even a straggler 
has yet been seen. They are known to assemble in dense 
flocks, and in all their movements, aerial evolutions, and 
predatory character, appear as the counterpart of their 
Red-winged relatives. They are also seen to frequent 
the ground in search of food, in the manner of the Cow- 
Bunting, or Troopial. In the spring season they wage 
war upon the insect tribes and their larvse, like the Red- 
wings, but in autumn they principally depend, doubt- 
less, on the seeds of vegetables. At Demerara, Water- 
ton observed them in flocks, and, as might have been 
suspected from their habits, they were very greedy after 
