325 . 
326. 
408 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES — OSCINES. 
&. Above, dull yellowish-olive, clearest on head, rump, and tail, obscured on the back. 
Below, sordid yellowish. Wings plain ae with olivaceous, with whitish edging, 
much as in the g. An inconspicuous object, but known from other Q orioles by its small 
size and slender bill, a little curved. Young ¢: First year like 9, but 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. §., strictly; rarely 
N. to Maine, Canada; W. tothe high central plains. Breeds throughout its U. 8. range; winters 
extralimital. Abundant in orchards, parks, streets, the skirts of woods, ete. 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 point — that 
which revolutionized hand-sewing, and made sewing-machines practicable: for their bill works 
to precisely the same effect. The orchard oriole’s nest is generally more compact and homo- 
geneous than the Baltimore’s, woven chiefly 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 & 0.60, and spotty rather than scrawly. 
I. s. affinis. (Lat. affinis, affined, allied.) TEXAS ORCHARD ORIOLE. Smaller: ¢ little 
over 6.00 ; wing usually under 3.00. Texas: Southern race, scarcely distinguishable. 
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- 
seu for his livery, or resembling those 
of his coat-of-arms. Fig. 263.) BAt- 
TIMORE ORIOLE. GOLDEN Rosin. 
FIREBIRD. HanGnestT. 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 
Fic. 263. — Baitimvre Oriole, reduced. (Sheppard del. 
Nichols sc.) 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 and feet blue-black, or dark grayish-blue. Length 7.50-8.00; extent 
11.50-12.50; wing 3.66; tail 3.00. Q smaller, and much paler, the black obscured by olive, 
sometimes entirely wanting. Above, mixed dusky and yellowish-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 dull 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 on sides. Above, olive, more yellowish on rump and 
tail, but latter without black; middle of back obscured with dusky centres of the 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 flame-color, 
and there is so much white on the wings as to approach the character of I. bullock. U. 5. 
and adjoining British Provinces ; W. to the plains, and reaching toward the Rocky Mts. This 
is one of our famous beauties of bird-life, noted alike for its flash of color, its assiduity in sing- 
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