182 
ICTERUS BALTIMORUS. 
middle feathers are black, and frequently the black on 
the hack is skirted with orange, and the tail tipt with 
the same colour. Three years, I have reason to believe, 
are necessary to fix the full tint of the plumage, and 
then the male bird appears as already described. 
51. ICTERUS BALTIMORUS, WILSON. 
FEMALE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
WILSON, PLATE LIII. FIG. IV. 
The history of this beautiful species has been parti- 
cularly detailed in the preceding article ; hut a few 
particulars may here he added : The males generally 
arrive several days before the females, saunter about 
their wonted places of residence, and seem lonely, and 
less sprightly, than after the arrival of their mates. In 
the spring and summer of 1811, a Baltimore took up its 
abode in Mr Bartram’s garden, whose notes were so 
singular as particularly to attract my attention ; they 
were as w r ell known to me as the voice of my most 
intimate friend. On the 30th of April, 1812, I w r as 
again surprised and pleased at hearing this same Bal- 
timore in the garden, whistling his identical old chant ; 
and I observed, that he particularly frequented that 
quarter of the garden where the tree stood, on the 
pendent branches of which he had formed his nest the 
preceding year. This nest had been taken possession 
of by the house wren, a few days after the Baltimore’s 
brood had abandoned it ; and, curious to know how 
the little intruder had furnished it within, I had taken 
it down early in the fall, after the wren herself had also 
raised a brood of six young in it, and which was her 
second that season. I found it stript of its original 
lining, floored with sticks, or small twigs, above which 
were laid feathers ; so that the usual complete nest of 
the w ren occupied the interior of that of the Baltimore. 
