BIRDS OF 



that chiefly on this account the western bird has been recorded 

 as a separate species under the name of Sturnella magna 

 neglecta, or Western Meadowlark, the dry central plains forming 

 the boundary between the two. 



GENUS ICTERUS BRISSON. 

 195. ICTERUS SPURIUS (LINN.). 506. 



Orchard Oriole. 



Male black ; lower back, rump, lesser wing-coverts, and all under-parts 

 from the throat, deep chestnut ; a whitish bar across the tips of greater 

 wing-coverts ; bill and feet blue-black. Tail graduated. Length, about 7 ; 

 wing, 3^ ; tail, 3. Female smaller, plain yellowish-olive above, yellowish 

 below ; wings dusky ; tips of the coverts and edges of the inner quills, 

 whitish ; known from the female of the other species by its small size and 

 very slender bill. Young male at first like the female, afterwards showing 

 confused characters of both sexes ; in a particular stage it has a black mask 

 and throat. 



HAB. United States, west to the Plains, south, in winter, to Panama. 



Nest, pensile ; composed of grass and other stringy materials ingeniously 

 woven together and lined with wool or plant down, rather less in size and not 

 quite so deep in proportion to its width as that of the Baltimore. 



Eggs, 4 to 6 ; bluish-white, spotted and veined with brown. 



On the 1 5th of May, 1865, I shot an immature male of this 

 species in an orchard at the Beach, which was the first 

 record for Ontario. I did not see or hear of it again till the 

 summer of 1883, when they were observed breeding at different 

 points around the city, but since that year they have not 

 appeared near Hamilton. 



Mr. Saunders informs me that they breed regularly and in 

 considerable numbers near London and west of that city, from 

 which we infer that the species enters Ontario around 

 the west end of Lake Erie, and does not often come as 

 far east as Hamilton. Most likely it does not at present extend 

 its migrations in Ontario very far from the Lake Erie 

 shore. The notes of the male are loud, clear and delivered with 

 great energy as he sits perched on the bough of an apple tree, 



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