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The Orchard Oriole 
Changes by 
Molting 
and molting. Similar differences between breeding males of the first 
and second year may be detected in other species, but are not usually 
so pronounced. The Baltimore Oriole is much duller the first year, and 
the Scarlet Tanager and Rose-breasted Grosbeak have olive or brown 
wing- and tail-feathers, instead of black ones. All these changes, too, 
are brought about by a molt or renewal of the feathers, 
either in the late summer after the breeding-season or 
in the early spring. The feathers themselves do not 
change color, so that wherever changes of plumage such as those take 
place they are produced by the replacement of feathers of one color by 
those of another. 
The Orchard Oriole does not range so far north as does the Baltimore 
Oriole, and in the northern part of its range it is often rare and local, 
and is greatly outnumbered by the Baltimore. In the southern Middle 
States, however, it is abundant and outnumbers the Baltimore. In winter 
it retires to Central America. It reaches the southern border of the 
United States about April 1, and the latitude of Washington and St. Louis 
about April 28. In the autumn we see only a few after September. 
Duller in color and in many other respects less striking than his rela- 
tive, the Baltimore, the modest Orchard Oriole has always had to take 
second place. The older authors christened him the “spurious,” or in- 
ferior, Baltimore Bird, and from this has come his specific name spurius. 
Then, too, he is rather rare in the northeastern United States, where 
most of our bird-biographers have pursued their studies, and he has con- 
sequently figured but little in literature, and is less 
An Attractive k n0 wn than his more brilliant relative. To those who 
have had the good fortune to know him well, how- 
ever, he is none the less attractive ; while, owing to his preference for the 
vicinity of man’s abode, he is usually associated in one’s mind with fond 
recollections. 
The old house with its cluster of farm buildings, the rows of gnarled 
and lichen-covered trunks of apple-trees, their branches laden with green 
fruit, the warm sunshine of early summer and the song of the Orchard 
Oriole — all are ever closely intermingled in my memory. 
Classification and Distribution 
The Orchard Oriole belongs to the Order Passeres, Suborder Oscines, and 
Family Icteridce. Its scientific name is Icterus spurius. It inhabits in summer 
eastern North America, and breeds from the Canadian border throughout the 
whole United States and northern Mexico, east of the dry plains. It winters in 
Central America and northern Colombia. 
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