Genus XV. ORIOLUS.* 



Species I. ORIOLUS BALTIMORUS.^ 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



[Plate I. Fig. 3— Male.] 



Linn. Si/nt. 1, p. 162, 10. — Iclerun minor, Briss. ii , p. 109, pi. 12, fig. 1. — Le Hal 

 timore. Buff, in., p. 231. PL Enl. 506, fig. ].— Baltimore Bird, Catesb. Car. 

 1, i».—A>-ct. Zool. II., p. 142.— Lath. Syn. ii., p. 432, 19.— Bartram, p. 290. 



This is a bird of passage, arriving in Pennsylvania, from the south, 

 about the beginning of May, and departing towards the latter end of 

 August, or beginning of September. From the singularity of its colors, 

 the construction of its nest, and its preferring the apple-trees, weeping- 

 willows, walnut, and tulip-trees, adjoining the farm-house, to build on, 

 it is generally known, and, as usual, honored with a variety of names, 

 such as Hang-nest, Hanging-bird, Golden Robin, Fire-bird (from the 

 bright orange seen through the green leaves, resembling a flash of 

 fire), &c., but more generally the Baltimore-bird, so named, as Catesby 

 informs us, from its colors, which are black and orange, being those of 

 the arms or livery of Lord Baltimore, formerly proprietary of Maryland. 



The Baltimore Oriole is seven inches in length ; bill almost straight, 

 strong, tapering to a sharp point, black, and sometimes lead colored 

 above, the lower mandible light blue towards the base. Head, throat, 

 upper part of the back and wings, black ; lower part of the back, rump, 

 and whole under parts, a bright orange, deepening into vermilion on 

 the breast ; the black on the shoulders is also divided by a band of 

 orange ; exterior edges of the greater wing-coverts, as well as the edges 

 of the secondaries, and part of those of the primaries, white ; the tail 

 feathers, under the coverts, orange ; the two middle ones thence to the 

 tips are black, the next five, on each side, black near the coverts, and 

 orange toward the extremities, so disposed, that when the tail is ex- 

 panded, and the coverts removed, the black appears in the form of a 

 pyramid, supported on an arch of orange, tail slightly forked, the ex- 



* This genus has been variously divided by modern ornithologists. Temminck 

 has separated it into four sections, viz. : Cassicus, Qiiiscala, Icterus, and Emberi- 

 zoides. The two species described by Wilson, belong to the third section, Icterus. 



t Coracias Galbida, Linn. Si/st. ed. 10, torn, i., 108. — Oriohis Baltimore, Lath. 

 Ind. Orn. 180. 



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