ICTERUS, a bird so called by classical authors, and supposed by Pliny to be the same as the Cc-fig/As, which nearly all writers agree in considering to be what we now know as the Golden Oriole (Oriulus galbula).1 At any rate it signified one 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, Icteridce, intermediate it would seem between the BUNTINGS (VOL iv. p. 525) and STARLINGS (q. v.) ; and, while many of them bear the vulgar name of Troopials (the English equivalent of the French Troupiales, first used by Brisson), others are known as the American GRACKLES (vol. xi. p. 26). The typical species of Ieterus is the Oriolus icterus of Linnaeus, the Merles vulgaris of Daudin and modern ornithologists, an inhabitant of northern Brazil, Guiana, Venezuela, occasionally it is said visiting some of the Antilles and of the United States, but without much apparent proof. Thirty-three species of the genus Icterus alone, and more than seventy others belonging to upwards of a score of genera, are recognized by Messrs Sclater and Salvin (Nomenclator, pp. 35-39) as belonging to the Neotropical Region, though a few of them emigrate to the northward in summer. It would of course be impossible here to dwell upon them, but Cassicus and Ostiaops may perhaps be named as the most remarkable. 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 simple tunes, which are admirably reproduced by their clear voice. Some have a plumage wholly black, others are richly clad, as is the well-known Baltimore Oriole, Golden Robin, or Hangnest of the United States, Icterus baltimore, 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. p. 48), the tinctures of the armorial bearings of the Calverts, Lords Baltimore, the original grantees of Maryland, but probably more correctly those of their liveries. The most divergent form of Ieteridce 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, Alaiididce, to which, however, it has no near affinity, while Dolichonyx oryzivorns, the Rice-bird, with its very Bunting-like bill, is not much less aberrant. (A. N.)