BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 143 



terior feather on each side a quarter of an inch shorter than the others ; 

 legs and feet light blue or lead color ; iris of the eye hazel. 



■ The female has the head, throat, upper part of the neck and back, of 

 a dull black, each feather being skirted with olive yellow, lower part of 

 the back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and whole lower parts, orange yellow, 

 but much duller than that of the male ; the whole wing feathers are of 

 a deep dirty brown, except the quills, which are exteriorly edged, and 

 the greater wing-coverts, and next superior row, which are broadly 

 tipped, with a dull yellowish white ; tail olive yellow ; in some specimens 

 the two middle feathers have been found partly black, in others wholly 

 so ; the black on the throat does not descend so far as in the male, is 

 of a lighter tinge, and more irregular ; bill, legs, and claws light blue. 



Buffon, and Latham, have both described the male of the bastard Bal- 

 timore {Oriolus sjmrnis), as the female Baltimore. Pennant has com- 

 mitted the same mistake ; and all the ornithologists of Europe, with 

 whose works I am acquainted, who have undertaken to figure and 

 describe these birds, have mistaken the proper males and females, and 

 confounded the two species together in a very confused and extraor- 

 dinary manner, for which indeed we ought to pardon them, on account 

 of their distance from the native residence of these birds, and the strange 

 alterations of color which the latter are subject to. 



This obscurity I have endeavored to clear up in the present volume of 

 this work, PI. IV., by exhibiting the male and female of the Oriolus spu- 

 rius in their different changes of dress, as well as in their perfect plu- 

 mage ; and by introducing representations of the eggs of both, have, I 

 hope, put the identity of these two species beyond all further dispute or 

 ambiguity. 



Almost the whole genus of Orioles belong to America, and with a few 

 exceptions build pensile nests. Few of them, however, equal the Balti- 

 more in the construction of these receptacles for their young, and in 

 giving them, in such a superior degree, convenience, warmth, and secu- 

 rity. For these purposes he generally fixes on the high bending extremi- 

 ties of the branches, fastening strong strings of hemp or flax round two 

 forked twigs, corresponding to the intended width of the nest ; with the 

 same materials, mixed Avitli quantities of loose tow, he interweaves or 

 fabricates a strong firm kind of cloth, not unlike the substance of a hat 

 in its raw state, forming il into a pouch of six or seven inches in depth, 

 lining it substantially with various soft substances, well interwoven with 

 the outward netting, and lastly, finishes Avith a layer of horse hair; the 

 whole being shaded from the sun and rain by a natural pent-house, or 

 canopy of leaves. As to a hole being left in the side for the young to 

 be fed, and void their excrements through, as Pennant and others relate, 

 it is certainly an error : I have never met with anything of the kind in 

 the nest of the Baltimore. 



