188 
ICTERUS SPURIUS. 
with black and olive on the upper parts of the back, 
and with reddish bay and yellow on the belly, sides, 
and vent, scattered in the most irregular manner, not 
alike in any two individuals ; and, generally, the two 
middle feathers of the tail are black, and the others 
centred with the same colour. When this bird is 
approaching to its perfect plumage, the black spreads 
over the whole head, neck, upper part of the back, 
breast, wings, and tail; the reddish bay, or bright 
chestnut occupying the lower part of the breast, the 
belly, vent, rump, tail-coverts, and three lower rows 
of the lesser wing-coverts. The black on the head is 
deep and velvety ; that of the wings inclining to brown ; 
the greater wing-coverts are tipt with white. In the 
same orchard, and at the same time, males in each of 
these states of plumage may be found, united to their 
respective plain-coloured mates. I may add, that Mr 
Charles W. Peale, proprietor of the museum in Phila- 
delphia, who, as a practical naturalist, stands deser- 
vedly first in the first rank of American connoisseurs ; 
and who has done more for the promotion of that 
sublime science than all our speculative theorists to- 
gether, has expressed to me his perfect conviction of 
the changes which these birds pass through ; having 
himself examined them both in spring and towards the 
latter part of summer, and having at the present time 
in his possession thirty or forty individuals of this 
species, in almost every gradation of change. 
In all these, the manners, mode of building, food, 
and notes are, generally speaking, the same, differing 
no more than those of any other individuals belonging 
to one common species. The female appears always 
nearly the same. 
I have said that these birds construct their nests 
very differently from the Baltimores. They are so 
particularly fond of frequenting orchards, that scarcely 
one orchard in summer is without them. They usually 
suspend their nest from the twigs of the apple tree ; 
and often from the extremities of the outward branches*, 
It is formed exteriorly of a particular species of long, 
