YELLOW-HEADED TROOPIAL. 
49 
a recent specimen, we could hardly hesitate to believe 
our bird distinct ; but as be had only a dried skin, and 
as Buffon’s figure represents a nearer approach to the 
size of nature, we conclude that Brisson’s estimate is 
not to be implicitly relied upon. Vieillot, who never 
saw the bird, states the length to be six inches and 
a half, and refers it to his genus I*endulinus y but it 
certainly belongs to his genus Agelaius. 
The male yellow-headed troopial is ten inches and a 
half long. The bill is dark horn colour, and formed 
exactly like that of the red-winged troopial. The feet 
are black ; the irides, dark brown. The whole head, 
neck, and breast, are brilliant orange yellow, more vivid 
and sericeous on the head, and terminating in a point 
on the belly; the feathers around the base of the bill, 
the chin, and a wide stripe passing from the bill through 
the eye, are black. The remaining parts, excepting 
some feathers of the belly, and some of the under tail- 
coverts, which are yellow at base, are glossy black, 
very slightly tinged with brownish. Some of the exte- 
rior wing-coverts are pure white, with black tips, 
constituting two very remarkable white spots on the 
wing, the larger of which is formed by the greater 
coverts of the primaries, and the smaller one by the 
middling coverts. The first, second, and third primaries, 
are longest and equal. The tail is four inches long, 
slightly rounded, the two middle feathers being some- 
what shorter than those immediately adjoining. This 
character Wilson remarked in the red-winged troopial ; 
and, as other notable traits are common to both species, 
we must regard them, not only as congeneric, but as 
very closely allied species of the same subgenus. They 
differ, however, in colour, and the yellow-headed troopial 
is larger, having the bill, feet, and claws consequently 
stronger, and the first primary longer than the second 
and third, or at least as long ; whereas, in the red- 
winged, the third is the longest. 
The female of our troopial is eight inches and a 
quarter long, a size remarkably inferior to that of the 
male, and exactly corresponding with the difference 
VOL. IV. d 
