OECHAED OEIOLE. 
211 
which it originated. The word bastard among men has its de- 
terminate meaning; but when applied to a whole species of birds, 
perfectly distinct from any other, originally deriving their pe- 
culiarities of form, manners, colour, &c. from the common source 
of all created beings, and perpetuating them, by the usual laws 
of generation, as unmixed and independent as any other, is, to 
call it by no worse a name, a gross absurdity. Should the reader 
be displeased at this, I beg leave to remind him, that as the 
faithful historian of our feathered tribes, I must be allowed the 
liberty of vindicating them from every misrepresentation what- 
ever, whether originating in ignorance or prejudice; and of al- 
lotting to each respective species, as far as I can distinguish, that 
rank and place in the great order of nature, to which it is enti- 
tled. 
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 Baltimore, from the following circumstances: its size — it is 
less, and more slender; its colours, which are different, and very 
differently disposed; the form of its bill, which is sharper point- 
ed, and more bent; the form of its tail, which is not even but 
wedged; its notes, which are neither so full nor so mellow, and 
uttered with much more rapidity; its mode of building, and the 
materials it uses, both of which are different; and lastly, the 
shape and colour of the eggs of each (see figs, a and h,) 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 original species, or to 
assure ourselves, that the Great-horned Owl is not in fact a bas- 
tard Goose, or the Carrion-crow a mere variety of the Hum- 
ming-bird? 
These mistakes have been occasioned by several causes. Prin- 
cipally by the changes of colour, to which the birds are subject. 
