ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



71 



more Oriole is exhibited beside it (fig. ; both of these were mi* 

 imtely copied from nature, and are sufficient of themselves to de- 

 termine, beyond all possibility of doubt, the identity of the two 

 species. I may add, that Mr. Charles W. Peale, proprietor of the 

 Museum in Philadelphia, who, as a practical naturalist, stands de- 

 servedly first in the first rank of American connoisseurs ; and who 

 has done more for the promotion of that sublime science than all 

 our speculative theorists together, has expressed to me his perfect 

 conviction of the changes which these birds pass thro; having him- 

 self examined them both in spring and towards the latter part of 

 summer, and having at the present time in his possession thirty 

 or forty individuals of this species, in almost every gradation of 

 change. 



The Orchard Oriole, tho partly a dependent on the industry 

 of the farmer, is no sneaking pilferer, but an open and truly benefi- 

 cent friend. To all those countless multitudes of destructive bugs 

 and caterpillars that infest the fruit trees in spring and summer, 

 preying on the leaves, blossoms and embryo of the fruit, he is a 

 deadly enemy; devouring them wherever he can find them, and 

 destroying, on an average, some hundreds of them every day, with- 

 out offering the slightest injury to the fruit, however much it may 

 stand in his way. I have witnessed instances where the entrance 

 to his nest was more than half closed up by a cluster of apples, 

 which he could have easily demolished in half a minute; but, as 

 if holding the property of his patron sacred, or considering it as 

 a natural bulwark to his own, he slid out and in with the greatest 

 gentleness and caution. I am not suflSciently conversant in ento- 

 mology to particularize the different species of insects on which he 

 feeds; but I have good reason for believing that they are almost 

 altogether such as commit the greatest depredations on the fruits 

 of the orchard; and as he visits us at a time when his services are 

 of the greatest value, and like a faithful guardian, takes up his sta- 

 tion where the enemy is most to be expected, he ought to be held 



