184 
ICTERUS SPURIUS. 
never, to my knowledge, been either accurately figured ! 
or described. 
The Count de BuflFon, in introducing what he sup- | 
posed to be tlie male of tins bird, but which appears 
evidently to have been the female of the Baltimore 
oriole, makes the following observations, which I give 
in the words of his translator :—« This bird is so called 
(spurious Baltimore,) becau.se the colours of its plumage 
are not so lively as in the preceding (^Baltimore o.) lu 
tact, when we compare these birds, and find an exact 
correspondence in every thing except the colours, and 
not even in the distribution of these, but only in the 
different tints they a.ssumc ; we cannot hesitate to infer, | 
that the spurious Baltimore is a variety of a more I 
generous race, degenerated by the intiuence of climate, 
or some other accidental cause.” 
How the iullnence of climate could afifect one portion I 
of a species and not the other, when both reside in the j 
same cliniate, and feed nearly on the same food ; or ' 
what accidental cause could produce a difference so I 
striking, and also so regular, a.s exists between the two, 
are, I confess, mattei-s beyond iny I’omprehension. But, 
if it be recollected, that the birci which the Count was 
thus philosophizing upon, was nothing more than the 
lemale Baltimore oriole, which exactly corresponds 
to the description of his male bastard Baltimore, the 
difficulties at once vani.sh, and with them the whole 
su])erstructure of theory founded on this mistalie. Dr 
Latham, also, while he confesses the great confusion 
and uncertainty that prevail between the true and 
bastard Baltimore, and their females, cousidereit hin-hlv 
probable that the whole will be found to belong to^’cn'e 
aud the same species, in their different chauges of colour. 
In this conjecture, however, the worthy naturalist has 
likewise been mistaken ; and I shall endeavour to point 
out the fact, as well as this source of this mistake. 
And hero 1 cannot but take notice of the name which 
naturalists have bestowed on this bird, and n hich is 
certainly remarkable. Specific names, to be perfect, 
ought to express some peculiarity, common to no other 
