23 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 

 ORIOLUS BALTIMORE, 

 [PI. I.— Fig. 3.] 



Linn. Syst. /, p. 162, 10.— Icterus Minor, Briss. II, p. 109, 19, t. 12, Jig. L~Le BalH- 

 more, Buff. Ill, p. 231. PL Enl. 506, Jig. 1. — Baltimore Bird, Catesb. Car. 1, 48. — 

 Arct. Zool. II, p. 142.— Lath. Syn. II, p. 432, 19.— Bartram, j&. 290.— Pe ale's ilfz/- 

 seum. No. 1506. 



THIS is a bird of passage, arriving in Pennsylvania from the 

 south about the beginning of May, and departing towards the latter 

 end of August or beginning of September. From the singularity 

 of its colors, the construction of its nest, and its preferring the apple 

 trees, weeping willows, walnut and tulip trees adjoining the farm 

 house, to build on, it is generally known, and, as usual, honored 

 with a variety of names, such as Hang-nest, Hanging-bird, Golden 

 Robin, Fire-bird (from the bright orange seen through the green 

 leaves resembling a flash of fire), &c. but more generally the Bal- 

 timore bird, so named, as Catesby informs us, from its colors, 

 which are black and orange, being those of the arms or livery of 

 lord Baltimore, formerly proprietary of Maryland. 



The Baltimore Oriole is seven inches in length; bill almost 

 straight, strong, tapering to a sharp point, black, and sometimes 

 lead colored 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, deep- 

 ening 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 from thence to the tips are black, the 



