‘ ORCHARD ORIOLE. 45 
followed and repeated the same error. Another cause may be as- 
signed, viz. the extreme shyness of the female Orchard Oriole, repre- 
sented at Fig. 11. This bird has hitherto escaped the notice of Euro- 
pean naturalists, or has been mistaken for another species, or perhaps 
for a young bird of the first season, which it almost exactly resembles. 
In none of the numerous works on ornithology has it ever before ap- 
peared in its proper character; though the male has been known to 
Europeans for more than a century, and has usually been figured in 
one of his dresses as male, and in another as female; these varying 
according to the fluctuating opinions of different writers. It is amus- 
ing to see how gentlemen have groped in the dark in pairing these 
two species of Orioles, of which the following examples may be 
given: 
Buffon’s and Latham’s Bal-( Male... . Male Baltimore. 
umore Oriole. Female... Male Orchard Oriole, Fig. 14. 
Spurious Baltimore of ditto Male; . «.. Vemale Baltimore, 7 
P *? Female... Male Orchard Oriole, Fig 12. 
.. Male Baltimore. 
,, : . i 
Pennant’s Baltimore Oriole. Female. . Young male Baltimore. 
. . Male. ...Male Orchard Oriole, Fig. 14. 
Spurious Oriole of ditto. 9 nile... Ditto ditto, Fig. 12. 
r . A Male... .Male Baltimore. 
Catesby’s Baltimore Oriole. Female. . Not mentioned. 
Male. .. .Male Orchard Oriole, Fig. 12. 
Sporious Baltimore of ditto. } Fy nate, . Ditto ditto, Fig. 14. 
4 
Among all these authors Catesby is doubtless the most inexcusable, 
having lived for several years in America, where he had an opportunity 
of being more correct: yet, when it is considered, that the female 
of this bird is so much shyer than the male; that it is seldom seen; 
and that, while the males are flying around and bewailing an approach 
to their nest, the females keep aloof, watching every movement of the 
enemy in restless but silent anxiety; it is less to be wondered at, I 
say, that two birds of the same kind, but different in plumage, making 
their appearance together at such times, should be taken for male 
and female of the same nest, without doubt or examination, as, from 
that strong sympathy for each other’s distress which prevails so uni- 
versally among them at this season, it is difficult sometimes to distin- 
guish between the sufferer and the sympathizing neighbor. 
The female of the Orchard Oriole, Fig. 11, 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 yellowish white, greater 
coverts and secondaries exteriorly edged with the same, primaries 
slightly so; tail, rounded at the extremity, 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 pointed, and black towards the extremity; iris of tiie eye, 
hazel; pupil, black. The young male of the first season corresponds 
nearly with the above description. But in the succeeding spring he 
makes his appearance with a large patch of black marking the front, 
lores, and throat, as represented in Fig. 12. In this stage, too, the 
black sometimes makes its appearance on the two middle feathers 
