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. [41] _Icterus melanocephalus_, GRAY. _Psarocolius melanocephalus_, WAGLER, Isis, 1829, 756. _Icterus melanocephalus_, GRAY, Genera.—SCLATER, Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1858, 97.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1867, 53.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 543. _Xanthornus melanocephalus_, BON. Consp. 1850, 434 (description of young only). _? Icterus graduacauda_, LESSON, Rev. Zoöl. 1839, 105. SP. CHAR. Similar to _I. auduboni_, but without any white whatever on the wing. Head and neck all round, wings, scapulars, and tail, uniform pure black. Rest of body, including inside of wing and tibia and the lesser wing-coverts, orange-yellow; clouded with olivaceous-green on the back, less so on the rump. Bill and legs plumbeous, the former whitish at base. Length, 7.70; wing, 3.75; tail, 4.80. _Hab._ Warm parts of Mexico. Very like the _auduboni_, but smaller, the bill much stouter, shorter, and the culmen more curved. The third quill is longest; the fourth, fifth, and second successively a little shorter; the first and seventh about equal. The black of the head and neck comes farther behind and on the sides than in _auduboni_. The wings are totally destitute of the white edges of quills and coverts as seen in _auduboni_, and the middle coverts are black instead of pure yellow. The tail, too, is entirely black. Icterus parisorum, BONAP. SCOTT’S ORIOLE.