Species II. ORIOLUS MUTATUS* 



ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



[Plate IV.] 



Bastard Ballimors, Catesbt, i., 49. — Le Baltimore batard, Buffon, hi., 233, PL 

 Enl. 506. — Oriolas spurius, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 389. — Lath. Syn. ii., p. 433, 20, p. 

 437, 24.— Bartram, p. 290. 



There are no circumstances, relating to birds, which tend so much 

 ' to render their history obscure and perplexing, as the various changes 

 of color which many of them undergo. These changes are in some 

 cases periodical, in others progressive ; and are frequently so extraor- 

 dinary, that, unless the naturalist has resided for years in the country 

 where the birds inhabit, and has examined them at almost every season, 

 he is extremely liable to be mistaken and imposed on by their novel ap- 

 pearance. Numerous instances of this kind might be cited, from the 

 pages of European writei's, in which the same bird has been described 

 two, three, and even four different times, by the same person ; and each 

 time as a different kind. The species we are now about to examine is a 

 remarkable example of this ; and as it has never to my knowledge been 

 either accurately figured or described, I have devoted one plate to the 

 elucidation of its histoiy. 



The Count de Buffon, in introducing what he supposed to be the male 

 of this bird, but which appears evidently to have been the female of the 

 Baltimore Oriole, makes the following observations, which I give in the 

 words of his translator: "This bird is so called (Spurious Baltimore,) 

 because the colors of its plumage are not so lively as in the preceding 

 (Baltimore 0.) In fact, when we compare these birds, and find an 

 exact correspondence in everything except the colors, and not even in 

 the distribution of these, but only in the different tints they assume, we 

 cannot hesitate to infer, that the Spurious Baltimore is a variety of a 

 more generous race, degenerated by the influence of climate, or some 

 other accidental cause." 



* O. Spurius, Linn., which name must be adopted. Icterus minor spurius, Briss. 

 II., Ill, pi. 10, fig. 3. — Carouge de Cayenne, Burr. PI. Enl. 607, fig. 1, (adult male.) 

 Carouge du Cap de bonne Esp^rance, Buff. PI. Enl. 607, fig. 2, (female.) Merle d 

 gorge noire de St. Domingue, Buff. PI. Enl. 559, (young male.) 



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