408 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 



$. Above, dull yellowish-olive, clearest on head, rump, aud tail, obscured on the back. 

 Below, sordid yellowish. Wings plain dusky, glossed with olivaceous, with whitish edging^ 

 much as in the $. An inconspicuous object, but known from other 9 orioles by its small 

 size and slender bill, a little curved. Young ^ : First year like 9 > t>ut larger ; second year 

 like 9 , but with a black mask on the face and throat. Afterward showing confused characters 

 of both sexes. Three years required to assume the full dress. Eastern U. S., strictly; rarely 

 N. to Maine, Canada; W. to the high central plains. Breeds throughout its U. S. range; winters 

 extralimital. Abundant in orchards, parks, streets, the skirts of woods, etc. The nest is one 

 of the most perfect examples of a woven pensile fabric, even in a group of birds distinguished 

 as the orioles are for the dexterity and assiduity they display in their elaborate textile rostrifac- 

 tures. They antedate Howe in the expedient of placing the eye of a needle at its ])()int — that 

 which revolutionized hand-sewing, and made sewing-machines practicable ; for their bill worlcs 

 to precisely the same effect. The orchard oriole's nest is generally more compact and liomo- 

 geneous than the Baltimore's, woven chieily of slender grass-blades which cure in the sun like- 

 good hay, long retaining some greenness, which tends to its concealment in the foliage. It is 

 smaller, less deep in proportion, and often not so strictly pendant from its forked twig. Eggs 

 smaller than the Baltimore's, scarcely 0.85 X 0.60, and spotty rather than scrawly. 



325. I. s. affl'nis. (Lat. affinis, affined, allied.) Texas Orchard Oriole. Smaller : $ little 

 over 6.00 ; wing usually under 3.00. Texas : Southern race, scarcely distinguishable. 



326. I. gal'bula. (Lat. galgula or galbula, some small yellow bird of the ancients. " Baltimore " 

 is not from the city of that name, but from the title of Sir George Calvert, first baron of Balti- 

 more ; the colors of the bird being cho- 

 sen f(jr his livery, or resembling those 

 of his coat-of-arms. Fig. 263.) Bal- 

 timore Oriole. Golden Eobin. 

 Firebird. Hangnest. Adult ^: 

 Black and orange. Head and neck 

 all round, and the back, black ; rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, lesser and under 

 wing-coverts, most of the tail-feathers, 

 and all the under parts from the throat 

 fiery orange, but of varying intensity 

 according to age and season. Middle 

 tail-feathers black ; wings black, the 

 middle and greater coverts, and inner 



quills, more or less edged and tipped with white, but the white on the coverts not forming a 

 continuous patch ; bill aud feet blue-black, or dark grayish-blue. Length 7.50-8.00 ; extent 

 11.50-12.50 ; wing 3.66 : tail 3.00. 9 smaller, and much paler, the black obscured by olive, 

 sometimes entirely wanting. Above, mixed dusky and yeUowish-olive, somewhat overcast 

 with a gray shade. Below, dull orange, more or less mixed with whitish,, and usually with 

 black traces on the throat. Tail and its upper coverts duU yellowish, the central feathers 

 usually blackish. Bill and feet lighter plumbeous than in the <?. Young ^ entirely without 

 black on throat and head, otherwise colored nearly like the 9 . Below, dull orange yellow 

 whitening on throat, shaded with olive (m sides. Above, olive, more yellowish on rump and 

 tail, but latter without black ; middle of back obscured with dusky centres of tlie feathers ; 

 wings dusky, with two white bars and white edgings of the inner quills. In some splendid 

 featherings, particularly from the Mississippi valley, the orange becomes intense tiame-color, 

 and there is so much white on the wings as to approach the character of I. bullocki. U. S. 

 and adjoining British Provinces ; W. to the plains, and reaching toward the Kocky Mts. This, 

 is one of our famous beauties of bird-life, noted alike for its flash of color, its assiduity in sing- 



FiG. 263. — Baltimor 

 Nichols sc.) 



Oriole, reduced. 



(Slieppard del. 



