278 THE ORIOLE. 



on an arch of orange, tail slightly forked, the exterior feather 

 on each side a quarter of an inch shorter than the others : 

 legs and feet light blue or lead color ; iris of the eye hazel. 



The female has the head, throat, upper part of the neck and 

 back, of a dull black, each feather being skirted with olive yel- 

 low, lower part of the back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and 

 whole lower parts, orange yellow, but much duller than that 

 of the male ; the whole wing feathers are of a deep dirty 

 brown, except the quills, which are exteriorly edged, and the 

 greater wing-coverts, and next superior row, which are broadly 

 tipt, with a dull yellowish white ; tail olive yellow ; in some 

 specimens the two middle feathers have been found partly 

 black, in others wholly so ; the black on the throat does not 

 descend so far as in the male, is of a lighter tinge, and more 

 irregular ; bill, legs and claws, light blue. 



Almost the whole genus of Orioles belong to America, and 

 with a few exceptions build pensile nests. Few of them, how- 

 ever, equal the Baltimore in the construction of these recepta- 

 cles for their young, and in giving them, in such a superior 

 degree, convenience, warmth and security. For these pur- 

 poses he generally fixes on the high bending extremities of 

 the branches, fastening strong strings of hemp or flax round 

 two forked twigs, corresponding to the intended width of the 

 nest ; with the same materials, mixed with quantities of loose 

 tow, he interweaves or fabricates a strong firm kind of cloth, 

 not unlike the substance of a hat in its raw state, forming it 

 into a pouch of six or seven inches in depth, lining it sub- 

 stantially with various soft substances, well interwoven with 

 the outward netting, and lastly, finishes with a layer 'of horse 

 hair ; the whole being shaded from the sun and rain by a 

 natural pent-house, or canopy of leaves. As to a hole being 

 left in the side for the young to be fed, and void their excre- 

 ments through, as Pennant and others relate, it is certainly 

 an error : I have never met with any thing of the kind in the 

 nest, of the Baltimore. 



Though birds of the same species have, generally speaking, 

 a common form of building, yet, contrary to the usually re- 



