202 BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



lead coloured above, the lower mandible light blue towards the 

 base. Head, throat, upper part of the back and wings, black; 

 lower part of the back, rump, and whole under parts, a bright 

 orange, deepening into vermilion on the breast; the black on 

 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 removed, the black 

 appears in the form of a pyramid, supported 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 colour; 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 speci- 

 mens 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. 



Buffon, and Latham, have both described the male of the 

 bastard Baltimore ( Oriolus spurius), as the female Baltimore. 

 Pennant has committed the same mistake; and all the ornithol- 

 ogists of Europe, with whose works I am acquainted, who have 

 undertaken to figure and describe these birds, have mistaken 

 the proper males and females, and confounded the two species 

 together in a very confused and extraordinary manner, for 

 which indeed we ought to pardon them, on account of their 



