Usually pairs were to be seen keeping close together, apparently preferring the thick foliage found on the margin of ponds, or in the old bed of the river. They did not communicate with each other by any note, and Mr. Clark was struck with their remarkable silence. Their habits seemed to him very different from those of any other Oriole with which he was acquainted.
From the papers of Lieutenant Couch, quoted by Mr. Cassin, we learn that these birds were seen by him, March 3, at Santa Rosalio, eight leagues from Matamoras. They were in pairs, and both sexes were very shy and secluded, seeking insects on the prickly pear, or among the low mimosa-trees, seeming to be never at rest, but ever on the lookout for their favorite food.
While at Charco Escondido, farther in the interior of Tamaulipas, Lieutenant Couch met with a pair of these birds, and having brought down the male bird with his gun, the female flew to a neighboring tree, apparently unaware of her loss. She soon, however, observed his fall, and endeavored to recall him to her side with notes uttered in a strain of such exquisite sadness that he could scarcely believe them uttered by a bird; and so greatly did they excite his sympathy, that he almost resolved to desist from further ornithological collections. He adds that he never heard the lay of any songster of the feathered tribe expressed more sweetly than that of the present species. At Monterey he found it a favorite cage-bird. The female also sings, but her notes are less powerful than those of the male. Generally the flight of this bird was low and rapid, and it seemed to prefer the shade of trees. It was observed almost invariably in pairs, and the male and female showed for each other great tenderness and solicitude.
The eggs of this species measure .90 of an inch in length by .70 in breadth. Their ground-color is a light drab or a dull purplish-white, scattered over which are faint markings of a subdued purple, blending imperceptibly with the ground, and above these markings are dots and irregular zigzag lines of dark brown, and darker purple, almost running into black.
SCOTT’S ORIOLE.
Icterus parisorum, (“Bon. Acad. Bonon. 1836.”)—Bp. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. V, 1837, 109.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 544, pl. lvii, f. 1; Mex. B. II, Birds, 19, pl. xix, f. 1.—Cassin, Pr. 1867, 54.—Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 276. Xanthornus parisorum, Ib. Conspectus, 1850, 434. Icterus melanochrysura, Lesson, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 105.—Icterus scotti, Couch, Pr. A. N. Sc. Phil. VII, April, 1854, 66 (Coahuila).
Sp. Char. Bill attenuated; not much decurved; tail moderately graduated. Head and neck all round, breast, interscapular region, wings, and tail, black. Under parts generally, hinder part of back to the tail, middle and lesser upper, and whole of lower wing-coverts, and base of the tail-feathers, gamboge-yellow; a band across the ends of the greater coverts, with the edges of the inner secondaries and tertiaries, white. Length, 8.25; extent, 11.75; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.75; tarsus, .95.
Female. Olivaceous above, the back with obsolete dusky streaks; rump and under parts yellowish, clouded with gray. Tail brownish-olive on upper surface, more yellow beneath; wings with two white bands.
Hab. Valley of the Rio Grande; south to Guatemala. In Texas, found on the Pecos. Cape St. Lucas. Oaxaca, winter (Scl. 1858, 303); Orizaba (Scl. 1860, 251); Vera Cruz, temp. and alpine (Sum. M. B. S. I, 553).