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ICTERUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V14, Page 275 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ICTERUS , a See also:

bird so called by classical authors, and supposed by See also:Pliny to be the same as the Galgulus, which is generally identified with the See also:golden See also:oriole (Oriolus galbula).1 It signified a bird in the plumage of which yellow or See also:green predominated, and hence See also:Brisson did not take an unhappy See also:liberty when he applied it in a scientific sense to some birds of the New See also:World of which the same could be said. These are now held to constitute a distinct See also:family, Icteridae, intermediate it would seem between the BUNTINGS (q.v.) and STARLINGS (q.v.); and, while many of them are called troopials (the See also:English See also:equivalent of the See also:French Troupiales, first used by Brisson), others are known as the See also:American GRACKLES (q.v.). The typical See also:species of Icterus is the Oriolus icterus of See also:Linnaeus, the Icterus vulgaris of Daudin and See also:modern ornithologists, an inhabitant of See also:northern See also:Brazil, See also:Guiana, See also:Venezuela, occasionally visiting some of the See also:Antilles and of the See also:United States. See also:Thirty-three species of the genus Icterus alone, and more than seventy others belonging to up-wards of a See also:score of genera, are recognized by Sclater and See also:Salvia (Vomenclalor, pp. 35-39) as belonging to the Neotropical Region, though a few of them emigrate to the northward in summer. Cassicus and Ostinops may perhaps be named as the most remark-able. They are nearly all gregarious birds, many of them with loud and in most cases, where they have been observed, with melodious notes, rendering them favourites in captivity, for they readily learn to See also:whistle See also:simple tunes. Some have a plumage wholly See also:black, others are richly clad, as is the well-known See also:Baltimore oriole, golden See also:robin or hangnest of the United States, Icterus baltimore, whose brightly contrasted black and See also:orange have conferred upon it the name it most commonly bears in See also:North See also:America, those See also:colours being, says See also:Catesby (Birds of Carolina, i. 48), the tinctures of the armorial See also:bearings of the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, the See also:original grantees of See also:Maryland, but probably more correctly those of their liveries. The most divergent See also:form of Icteridae seems to be that known in the United States as the meadow-See also:lark, Sturnella magna or S. ludoviciana, a bird which in aspect and habits has considerable resemblance to the larks of the Old World, Alaudidae, to which, however; it has no near See also:affinity, while Dolichonyx oryzivorus, the bobolink or See also:rice-bird, with its very See also:bunting-like See also:bill, is not much less aberrant. (A.

End of Article: ICTERUS

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