ICTERUS

This article appears in Volume V14, Page 275 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: I27-INV

ICTERUS , a bird so called by classical authors, and supposed by Pliny to be the same as the Galgulus, which is generally identified with the golden oriole (Oriolus galbula).1 It signified a bird in the plumage of which yellow or green predominated, and hence Brisson did not take an unhappy liberty when he applied it in a scientific sense to some birds of the New World of which the same could be said. These are now held to constitute a distinct family, Icteridae, intermediate it would seem between the BUNTINGS (q.v.) and STARLINGS (q.v.); and, while many of them are called troopials (the

English

ENGLISH

equivalent of the French Troupiales, first used by Brisson), others are known as the American GRACKLES (q.v.). The typical species of Icterus is the Oriolus icterus of Linnaeus, the Icterus vulgaris of Daudin and modern ornithologists, an inhabitant of northern Brazil, Guiana,

Venezuela

VENEZUELA

, occasionally visiting some of the Antilles and of the United States. Thirty-three species of the genus Icterus alone, and more than seventy others belonging to up-wards of a

score

SCORE (O.E. scor, from sceran, to cut, notch, cf. " shear ")

of genera, are recognized by Sclater and 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

whistle

WHISTLE

simple tunes. Some have a plumage wholly black, others are richly clad, as is the well-known

Baltimore

BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE, GEORGE CALVERT, 1ST BARON (C. 1580—1632)

oriole, golden robin or hangnest of the United States, Icterus

baltimore

BALTIMORE
BALTIMORE, GEORGE CALVERT, 1ST BARON (C. 1580—1632)

, whose brightly contrasted black and orange have conferred upon it the name it most commonly bears in North America, those colours being, says Catesby (Birds of Carolina, i. 48), the tinctures of the armorial bearings of the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, the

original

ORIGINAL

grantees of

Maryland

MARYLAND

, but probably more correctly those of their liveries. The most divergent form of Icteridae seems to be that known in the United States as the meadow-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 affinity, while Dolichonyx oryzivorus, the bobolink or

rice

-bird, with its very

bunting

-like bill, is not much less aberrant. (A. N,)

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