ORIOLE. 



PLATE XXXV. 



Class Aves. Order Passares: birds of passage. Genus 

 Criolus. Species Baltimore and Orchard Oriole. 



The following description of the Oriole is taken from Wilson's Ornithology. 



THIS is a bird of passage, arriving 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 pro^ 

 prietary of Maryland. 



The Baltimore Oriole is seven inches in length ; bill almost 

 straight, strong, tapering to a sharp point, black, and some- 

 times lead colored above, the lower mandible light blue to- 

 wards the base. Head, throat, upper part of the back and 

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

 parts, a.bright orange, deepening into vermillion on the breast ; 

 the black dn 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 expanded, and the coverts re- 

 moved, the black appears in the form of a pyramid, supported 



