66 
ORCHARD ORIOLE. 
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 whatever, whether origi- 
nating in ignorance or prejudice ; and of allotting to each 
respective species, as far as I can distinguish, that rank and 
place in the great order of nature to which it is entitled. 
To convince the foreigner, (for Americans have no doubt 
on the subject,) that the present is a distinct species from the 
Baltimore, 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 pointed, 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 b ,) 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 bastard Goose, or the 
Carrion Crow a mere variety of the Humming Bird ? 
These mistakes have been occasioned by several causes ; 
principally by the changes of colour to which the birds are 
subject, and the distance of Europeans from the country they 
inhabit. Catesby, it is true, while here, described and figured 
the Baltimore, and perhaps was the first who published figures 
of either species ; but he entirely omitted saying any thing of 
the female, and, instead of the male and female of the present 
species, as he thought, he has only figured the male in two of 
his different dresses ; and succeeding compilers have followed 
