202 
BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
lead coloured above, the lower mandible light blue towards the 
base. Head, throat, upper part of the back and wings, black; 
lower part of the back, rump, and whole under parts, a bright 
orange, deepening into vermilion on the breast; the black on 
the shoulders is also divided by a band of orange; exterior 
edges of the greater wing-coverts, as well as the edges of the 
secondaries, and part of those of the primaries, white; the tail 
feathers, under the coverts, orange; the two middle ones thence 
to the tips are black, the 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 colour; 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 yel- 
low, 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 speci- 
mens 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. 
Pennant has committed the same mistake; and all the ornithol- 
ogists of Europe, with whose works I am acquainted, who have 
undertaken to figure and describe these birds, have mistaken 
the proper 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 
