18 
BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
Bnffon and Latham have both described the male of the 
bastard baltimore ( Oriolus spurius) as the female baltimore. 
Mr Pennant has committed the same mistake ; and all the 
ornithologists 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 distance from the native residence of these 
birds, and the strange alterations of colour which the latter 
are subject to. 
This obscurity I have endeavoured to clear up in the 
present volume of this work, Plate IV. by exhibiting the 
male and female of the Oriolus spurius in their different 
changes of dress, as well as in their perfect plumage ; and by 
introducing representations of the eggs of both, have, I hope, 
put the identity of these two species beyond all future dispute 
or ambiguity. 
Almost the whole genus of orioles belong to America, and, 
with a few exceptions, build pensile nests.* Few of them, 
* The true orioles, having the Oriolus galbula of Europe and Africa, 
with O. melanocephalus of India, as typical, are entirely excluded from the 
New World ; nevertheless Wilson was perfectly correct, meaning the Icteri of 
Brisson, which are nearly confined to North and South America, represent the 
orioles in that country, and have now been arranged into several genera. These 
contain many species remarkable as well for their elegant form and bright and 
beautiful plumage, as for the singular and often matchless workmanship of 
their nests. The materials of the latter are woven and entwined in such 
a way as would defy the skill of the most expert sempstress, and unite all the 
requisites of dryness, security, and warmth. They are mostly pendulous from 
the ends of branches, and form thus a security from snakes or other depredators, 
which could easily reach them if placed on a more solid foundation. They 
are formed of the different grasses, of dry roots, lichens, long and slender 
mosses, and in the present instances, mentioned by our author, of substances 
which could not occur in the early or really natural state of the country, but 
had been adopted either from necessity, or “ with the sagacity of a good archi- 
tect, ” improving every circumstance to the best advantage. Among the 
different species, they vary in shape, from being round or resembling a compact 
ball, to nearly every bottle-shaped gradation of form, until they exceed three or 
four feet in length. Many species being gregarious, they breed numerously on 
