741 
O R I O L U S. 
feafdn the fong is more uniform, and the fyllables cmt- 
dmt-g'Min may be readily diftinguilhed, being expreffed 
with great harmony and ftrength. Loriot coudougnan is 
therefore the name given it by Vaill.int, from whofe 
fplendid work the annexed engraving, Plate II. is copied. 
24. Oriolus ruber, the red oriole: vermilion; wings, 
belly, and tail, deepeft black. The bill and legs black ; 
irides flame-colour. This bird is of the fixe ot a black¬ 
bird ; and is found at Antigua, in the Ille of Panay, one 
of the Philippines. 
25. Oriolus Guianenfis, the Guiaha oriole: blackifli; 
edges of the feathers grey ; bread, and neck beneath, red. 
It inhabits Guiana, as its name imports; and is about 
feven inches long. The tail is ftriate with grey; the legs 
aild claws are brown. 
26. Oriolus-fiavus, the Antigua yellow oriole : golden; 
hind-part of the back, wings, and tail, black. The bill 
and legs are black; the irides red. It is the fixe of a 
blackbird ; and, according to Sonnerat, is a native of 
Antigua, in the Ifle of Panay ; but it is alfo found about 
the river Plata in South America. 
27. Oriolus Baltimore, the Baltimore oriole: blackifh ; 
beneath, and bands on the wings, tawny. The bill is of 
a lead-colour ; greater wing-coverts black, tint with 
white ; firft quill-feathers dirty-white, edged with white ; 
two middle tail-feathers black, the reft black on the lower 
part, and orange above. In the female, the head and 
back are olive, edged with brownifh; body beneath, and 
tail-coverts, yellow; tail grey, edged with white. This 
fpecies is found in many parts of North America, occu¬ 
pying chiefly the more northern parts, advancing even to 
Montreal in the month of May, and returning fouthward 
in winter, which accounts for their appearance in Mary¬ 
land and Virginia at that time. They make their neft of 
a foft dov.my matter, in the fhape of a purfe, tying it with 
threads to the extreme forks of the twigs of the tulip, 
plane, and hickory, trees. The country-people call them 
pre-birds; and indeed, when in high plumage, their mo¬ 
tions from branch to branch not unaptly refemble a flafh 
of fire. 
28. Oriolus fpurius, thebaftard Baltimore oriole : black ; 
beneath tawny; wings with a white bar. It inhabits 
North America; and is called fpurius, becaufe the co¬ 
lours of its plumage are not fo lively as in the preceding ; 
and for this reafon it may be confidered as a degraded race. 
In faff, when we compare thefe birds, and find an exadl 
correfpondence in every thing except in the colours, and 
not even in the diftribution of thefe, but only in the dif¬ 
ferent tints which theyaffume; we cannot hefitate to in¬ 
fer, that the baftard Baltimore is a variety of a more ge¬ 
nerous race, degenerated by the influence of climate, or 
fome other accidental caufe. The black on the head is 
i'omewhat mottled, that of the throat pure ; that part of 
the hood which falls behind is of an olive-grey, which 
becomes darker as it approaches the back. Whatever in 
the preceding was bright-orange, is in the prefent yellow 
bordering on orange, and more vivid on the breaft and 
the coverts of the tail than on any other place. The 
wings are brown, but their great coverts and their quills 
are of a dirty-white. Of the twelve tail-quills, the two 
central ones are blackifli near the middle, olive at the 
origin, and yellow at the extremity; the next one on ei¬ 
ther fide fhows the two firft colours mixed confufedly; 
and, in the four following quills, the two laft colours are 
melted together. In the ftate of New York it ufually ar¬ 
rives in'May, attaches its neft to an apple-tree, and lays 
five eggs. 
29. Oriolus textor, the weaver oriole: yellow; head 
dulky, with a (hade of gold ; wings and tail blackilh, and 
orange at their margins. 
The weaver is widely diftinguiflied from the other 
orioles, by the proportions of its bill, tail, and wings, and 
the manner in which it builds its neft. Buffon del'cribes 
two of thefe birds, which he obtained from a lady, as fol¬ 
lows. The- eldeft had a kind of cowl, which appeared of 
Vol. XVII. No. 1212. 
a brown-gold glofs in the fun; this cowl difappeared in 
the moulting during the autumn, leaving the head of a 
yellow colour; but it again returned in the lpring, and 
was conftantly renewed the fucceeding years. The chief 
colour of the reft of the body was yellow, more or lefs in¬ 
clined to orange ; this was the predominant colour on the 
back, and on the lower part of the body; it bordered the 
coverts of the wdngs, their quills, and thofe of the tail, 
which were all of a blackifli ground. The young one had 
no cowl till the end of the fecond year, and did not even 
change its colours before that time; which occafioned its 
being miftaken for a female. Before the change which 
took place in the colours of its plumage, the yellow was 
of a lighter tint'than in the old one; it fpread over the 
throat, the neck, the breaft, and bordered, as in the 
other, all the quills of the tail and of the wings. The 
back was of an olive-brown, which extended beyond the 
neck as far as the head. In both the iris was orange, the 
bill of a horn-colour, and the legs reddifh. 
Thefe two birds lived in the fame cage, and at firft upon 
.good terms with each other; the young'one fat generally 
on the higheft bar, holding its bill clofe to the other, which 
it anfwered, by clapping its wings, and with a I’ubmipive 
air. They were obferved in the fpring to interweave 
chickweed in the grating of their cage; this was there¬ 
fore conceived as an indication of their defire to neftle; 
they were fupplied with fmall ruflies, and they built a neft 
fo capacious as to conceal one of them entirely. The fol¬ 
lowing year they renewed their labour; but the young 
one, being new clothed in the plumage of its fex, was 
driven oif by the other, and obliged* to condudl its work 
alone in another corner of the cage ; but it was ftijl per- 
fecuted; and, notwithftanding its fubmiflive behaviour, 
it was often fo roughly treated as to be left infenfible. 
They were feparated, and each was intent bn building ; 
but the labours of one day were often deftroyed in the 
fucceeding. A neft is not the produdfion of an indivi¬ 
dual. They had both a.Angular kind of fong; it was 
fomewhat Ihrill, but very fprightly. The old '’one died 
fuddenly; and the young one was cut off by epileptic fits. 
Their fize was rather fmall, and their wings and tail were 
proportionably fliort. 
30. Oriolus banana, the banana-oriole: fulvous; head 
and breaft cliefhut; back, wings, and tail, black. The 
fubjedt of this article has its plumage painted with three 
colours, applied in large patches : reddifti-brown, which 
is fpread over all the fore-part of the bird, on the head, 
the neck, and the breaft; a velvet black on the back, the 
feathers of the tail, thofe of the wings, and tlpeir great 
coverts, and even on the bill and the legs; deep-orange 
on the fmall coverts of the wings, the rump, and the co¬ 
verts of the tail. All thefe colours are more obfcure in 
the female. The length of the banana is feven inches, 
its bill fix lines, its tail above three inches; its wings, 
when fpread, meafure eleven inches, and, when clofed, ex¬ 
tend to the middle of the tail, or beyond it. This bird is 
found at Martinico, and abounds in Cayenne. They 
conftrudl a curious kind of neft, refembling the quarter 
of a hollow globe; and few it under the large leaf of a 
banana, which Ihelters the neft, and forms a part of it : 
the reft confifts of the fibres of the leaves. It is their at¬ 
tachment to the banana-tree that has given them their 
name. 
31. Oriolus xanthornus, the fmaller banana-oriole : pale- 
yellow ; the upper part of the tlr* at, tail, and wing- 
quills, black, i he male and female of this fpecies have 
a jargon nearly like our magpie. They fufpend thei; 
nefts, which are of a purfe-ftiape, from the extremity of 
fmall branches; but they choofe the branches that are 
long and naked, and feledt the trees that areftunted and 
ill-formed, and lean over the courfe of a river: it is alfo 
faid that thefe nefts are fubdivided into compartments for 
the feparate families, which has not been obferved in the 
other fpecies. Briflon fuppofes it to be the fame with the 
(njoquantototl of Fernandez, which is indeed of the fame 
9 C fize, 
