66 



ORCHARD ORIOLE 



other, originally deriving their peculiarities of form, manners, color, 

 &c. from the common source of all created beings, and perpetua- 

 ting tliem^, by the usual laws of generation, as unmixed and inde- 

 pendent as any other, is, to call it by no worse a name, a gross ab- 

 surdity. Should the reader be displeased at this, I beg leave to re- 

 mind him, that as the faithful historian of our feathered tribes, I 

 must be allowed the liberty of vindicating them from every misre- 

 presentation whatever, whether originating in ignorance or preju- 

 dice; and of allotting to each respective species, as far as I can dis- 

 tinguish, that rank and place in the great order of nature to which 

 it is entitled. 



To convince the foreigner (for Americans have no doubt on 

 the subject) that the present is a distinct species from the Balti- 

 more, it might be sufficient to refer to the figure of the latter, in 

 Plate I, and to fig. 4, Plate IV, of this work. I will however add, 

 that I conclude this bird to be specifically different from the Bal- 

 timore, from the following circumstances : its size — it is less, and 

 more slender; its colors, which are different, and very differently 

 disposed; the form of its bill which is sharper pointed, and more 

 bent ; the form of its tail, which is not even but ivedged; its notes, 

 which are neither so full nor so mellow, and vittered with much 

 more rapidity ; its mode of building, and the materials it uses, both 

 of which are different ; and lastly, the shape and color of the eggs 

 of each (see figs, a and b), which are evidently unlike. If all these 

 circumstances, and I could enumerate a great many more, be not 

 sufficient to designate this as a distinct species, by what criterion, 

 I would ask, are we to discriminate between a variety and an ori- 

 ginal species, or to assure ourselves, that the Great horned Owl is 

 not in fact a bastard Goose, or the carrion Crow a mere variety of 

 the Humming-bird? 



These mistakes have been occasioned by several causes. Prin- 

 cipally by the changes of color to which the birds are subject, and 

 the distance of Europeans from the country they inhabit. Catesby, 



