A revised classification of the Icteridae (Aves) based on DNA sequence data

Subfamily CASSICINAE Bonaparte, 1853

Comptes Rendus Hebdomadaires des Séances de l’Académie des Sciences, 37, 641–647 (p. 644, as Cassiceoe). Type genus: Cassicus Illiger, 1811 = Cacicus Lacépède, 1799.

Diagnosis. Only icterids without naral fossae and with external nostrils opening level with the ramphotheca (Ridgway 1902). Culmen conspicuous, swollen laterally at base and terminally rounded (except in diminutive Cacicus chrysopterus). External nares oval and circumscribed by bone; foramen posterior to the nares prominent and separated from them by a bony strut, unlike condition in other icterids (except sometimes Molothrus oryzivorus and perhaps Hypopyrrhus; Webster 2003). Ridgway (1902) stated that species in this group were the only icterids with rictal bristles, albeit minute, but we are unable to corroborate this character and detected no differences in the feathering of the rictal area in comparisons with other icterids.

Component genera: Cassiculus Swainson, 1827.

Psarocolius Wagler, 1827 [includes Gymnostinops P.L. Sclater, 1886, after Blake (1968) and Fraga (2011)]. Cacicus Lacépède, 1799 (includes Clypicterus Bonaparte, 1850 and Ocyalus Waterhouse, 1841, after Remsen et al. (2015), and Procacicus Fraga, 2005).