196 NORTH AMERICAN BIflDS. 



suiu'iviliarv stripe, mostly conccaliMl, liowover, by the black tips of the 

 feathers. The middle coverts, like tlie lesser, are ]mre ])laiii orange. 



A male from ("ape May, X. J. (.")0,4r)S, May), has the middle coverts white, 

 and the lesser wholly uniform Mack. The head, however, is as in ty})ical 

 si»ecimens. 



In a series of twenty adult sjirin.L;' males from Carlisle, IVnn., seven have 

 the mid'lle coverts more or less white. But it is noticed that all these speci- 

 mens witli white middle coverts have invariaVO-, Ihss intense cohtrs than 

 those with orani^e shouMers, while in the Kansas s[ ecimens tlie other colors 

 are of the brightest character. 



xV male from AVashins]jton (12,:U7, May 0) is exactly similar. 



Hadits. The familiar Baltimore Oriole, the Ciolden Kobin of the Xew 

 En^lautl States, is found tlirouuhout eastern Xorth America, at various sea- 

 sons, from Texas to the British Possessions, and fr«)ni the Atlantic to the 

 jilains. It is, however, for the most part, not common beyond the Missis- 

 sippi Kiver. It has been traced as far to the north as the ijoth parallel 

 of latitude, and probably breeds more or less abundantly in every State 

 east of the ^lississippi Iliver. It is rare in Florida, and is not «i:iven by 

 ^Ir. Allen as known to that State, but I have received its nest and ei^^jjs 

 from Monticello in West Florida. The Smithsonian ^Fuseum end»races 

 specimens from as far west as Powder Kiver and the Yellowstone. 



^Ir. J. A. Allen (Am Naturalist, June, 1872) mentions findini^ this species 

 at tlie base of the llocky Mountains, in Colorado, which he regards as its 

 extreme western limit. In Kansas he found this species, as well as the 

 Orchard Oriole, abundant, the Baltimore indulging in a dialect so different 

 from that of its northern relatives as often to puzzle him to make out to 

 what bird its strange notes l)elonged. Its colors were also unusually bright 

 in all the sjiecimens he examined. 



^Ir. Boardman gives it as very rare at Calais, but Professor Verrill thinks 

 it common in AVestern Maine. It is abundant throughout the southern 

 and central portions of Vermont and New Hampshire, and in all New York. 

 It is a common summer resident at Hamilton, Ontario, where it arrives the 

 second week in May. It was found on the plains of the Saskatchewan by 

 Captain Pdakiston. 



^Fr. Dresser states it to have been abundant at Matamoms, where it was 

 l)reedinLi-, though he was too late for its eggs. He saw none at San Antonio, 

 but ^Ir. J. H. Clark was mt)re fortunate. Numbers of them, lie states, were 

 seen nesting in the me-squite-trees on the jjrairies, at which time they 

 were very musical, having sometimes as many as three nests in the same 

 tree. These were all built of fine grass, among the top branches, and inter- 

 woven with the leaves. Dr. Woodhouse found it quite common in the 

 Indian Territory and in Eastern Texas. Specimens of this species were 

 taken by Mr. James M. Leannan, at Panama, which is presumed to be the 

 most southern locality on record for this bird. 



