24 BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



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 color; 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 yellow, 

 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 specimens 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. Mr. 

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

 gists of Europe, with whose works I am acquainted, who have un- 

 dertaken to figure and describe these birds, have mistaken the pro- 

 per 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 distance from the native 

 residence of these birds, and the strange alterations of color which 

 the latter are subject to. 



This obscurity I have endeavoured to clear up in the present 

 volume of this work, PI. IV, by exhibiting the male and female of 

 the Oriolus spurius in their different changes of dress, as well as in 

 their perfect plumage ; and by introducing representations of the 

 eggs of both, have, I hope, put the identity of these two species be- 

 yond all future dispute or ambiguity. 



