THE ORIOLE. 281 



and the tail tipt with the same color. Three years, I have 

 reason to believe, are necessary to fix the full tint of the plu- 

 mage, and then the male bird appears as already described. 



The males generally arrive several days before the females, 

 saunter about their wonted places of residence, and seem 

 lonely and less sprightly than after the arrival of their mates. 

 The chief difference between the male and female Balti- 

 more Oriole, is the superior brightness of the orange color of 

 the former to that of tue latter. The black on the head, 

 upper part of the back and throat of the female, is intermixed 

 with dull orange ; whereas, in the male, those parts are of a 

 deep shining black : the tail of the female also wants the 

 greater part of the black, and the wjiole lower parts are of a 

 much duskier orange. 



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 progres- 

 sive ; and are frequently so extraordinary, 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 appearance. Numerous instances of this kind might 

 be cited, from the pages of European writers, in which the 

 same bird has been described two, three, and even four times, 

 by the same person ; and each time as a different kind. The 

 species we are now about to examine, is a remarkable exam- 

 ple of this. 



The female of the Orchard Oriole is six inches and-a-half 

 in length, and eleven inches in extent ; the color above is a 

 yellow olive, inclining to a brownish tint on the back ; the 

 wings are dusky brown, lesser wing-coverts tipped with yel- 

 lowish white, greater coverts and secondaries exteriorly edged 

 with the same, primaries slightly so ; tail rounded at the ex- 

 tremity, the two exterior feathers three-quarters of an inch 

 shorter than the middle ones ; whole lower parts yellow ; bill 

 and legs light blue, the former bent a little, very sharp 



