sewed also with strong horse hair. This nest was hung on the extremity of the horizontal branch of an apple tree, fronting the southeast, was visible a hundred yards off, though shaded from the sun; and was the work of a very beautiful and perfect bird. The eggs are five, white, slightly tinged with flesh colour, marked on the greater end with purple dots, and on the other parts with long hair-like lines, intersecting each other in a variety of directions. I am thus minute in these particulars, from a wish to point out the specific difference between the true and bastard Baltimore, which Dr Latham, and some others, suspect to be only the same bird in different stages of colour.

So solicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper materials for his nest, that, in the season of building, the women in the country are under the necessity of narrowly watching their thread that may chance to be out bleaching, and the farmer to secure his young grafts; as the Baltimore, finding the former, and the strings which tie the latter, so well adapted for his purpose, frequently carries off both; or, should the one be over heavy, and the other too firmly tied, he will tug at them a considerable time before he gives up the attempt. Skeins of silk and hanks of thread have been often found, after the leaves were fallen, hanging round the Baltimore's nest; but so woven up, and entangled, as to be entirely irreclaimable. Before the introduction of Europeans, no such material could have been obtained here; but, with the sagacity of a good architect, he has improved this circumstance to his advantage; and the strongest and best materials are uniformly found in those parts by which the whole is supported.

Their principal food consists of caterpillars, beetles, and bugs, particularly one of a brilliant glossy green, fragments of which I have almost always found in their stomach, and sometimes these only.

The song of the Baltimore is a clear mellow whistle, repeated at short intervals as he gleans among the branches. There is in it a certain wild plaintiveness and naïveté extremely interesting. It is not uttered

with the rapidity of the ferruginous thrush, (turdus rufus,) and some other eminent songsters; but with the pleasing tranquillity of a careless ploughboy, whistling merely for his own amusement. When alarmed by an approach to his nest, or any such circumstance, he makes a kind of rapid chirruping, very different from his usual note. This, however, is always succeeded by those mellow tones which seem so congenial to his nature.

High on yon poplar, clad in glossiest green,
The orange, black-capp'd Baltimore is seen;
The broad extended boughs still please him best,
Beneath their bending skirts he hangs his nest;
There his sweet mate, secure from every harm,
Broods o'er her spotted store, and wraps them warm;
Lists to the noontide hum of busy bees,

Her partner's mellow song, the brook, the breeze;
These day by day the lonely hours deceive,
From dewy morn to slow descending eve.

Two weeks elapsed, behold! a helpless crew
Claim all her care and her affection too;
On wings of love the assiduous nurses fly,

Flowers, leaves, and boughs, abundant food supply;
Glad chants their guardian as abroad he goes,
And waving breezes rock them to repose.

The Baltimore inhabits North America, from Canada to Mexico, and is even found as far south as Brazil. Since the streets of our cities have been planted with that beautiful and stately tree, the Lombardy poplar, these birds are our constant visitors during the early part of summer; and, amid the noise and tumult of coaches, drays, wheelbarrows, and the din of the multitude, they are heard chanting "their native wood notes wild;" sometimes, too, within a few yards of an oysterman, who stands bellowing, with the lungs of a Stentor, under the shade of the same tree; so much will habit reconcile even birds to the roar of the city, and to sounds and noises, that, in other circumstances, would put a whole grove of them to flight.

These birds are several years in receiving their complete plumage. Sometimes the whole tail of a male individual in spring is yellow, sometimes only the two

middle feathers are black, and frequently the black on the back 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 particularly detailed in the preceding article; but a few particulars may here be 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 well known to me as the voice of my most intimate friend. On the 30th of April, 1812, I was again surprised and pleased at hearing this same Baltimore 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 wren occupied the interior of that of the Baltimore,

The chief difference between the male and female Baltimore oriole is the superior brightness of the orange colour of the former to that of the latter. The black on the head, upper part of the back and throat of the female, is intermixed with dull orange; whereas, in the male, those parts are of a deep shining black; the tail of the female also wants the greater part of the black, and the whole lower parts are of a much duskier orange.

I have observed, that these birds are rarely seen in pine woods, or where these trees generally prevail. On the ridges of our high mountains they are seldom to be met with. In orchards, and on well cultivated farms, they are most numerous, generally preferring such places to build in, rather than the woods or forest.

52. ICTERUS SPURIUS, BONAPARTE.-ORIOLUS MUTATUS, WILSON.

ORCHARD ORIOLE.

WILSON, PL. IV. FIG. I. FEMALE; FIG. II. MALE, TWO YEARS OLD; FIG. III. MALE, THREE YEARS OLD; FIG. IV. THE ADULT MALE. EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM.

THERE are no circumstances, relating to birds, which tend so much to render their history obscure and perplexing, as the various changes of colour which many of them undergo. These changes are in some cases periodical; in others progressive; and are frequently so extraordinary, that, unless the naturalist has resided for years in the country where the birds inhabit, and has examined them at almost every season, he is extremely liable to be mistaken and imposed on by their novel appearance. Numerous instances of this kind might be cited, from the pages of European writers, in which the same bird has been described two, three, and even four different times, by the same person; and each time as a different kind. The species we are now about to examine is a remarkable example of this; and it has

never, to my knowledge, been either accurately figured or described.

The Count de Buffon, in introducing what he supposed to be the male of this bird, but which appears evidently to have been the female of the Baltimore oriole, makes the following observations, which I give in the words of his translator: "This bird is so called (spurious Baltimore,) because the colours of its plumage are not so lively as in the preceding (Baltimore o.) In fact, when we compare these birds, and find an exact correspondence in every thing except the colours, and not even in the distribution of these, but only in the different tints they assume; we cannot hesitate to infer, that the spurious Baltimore is a variety of a more generous race, degenerated by the influence of climate, or some other accidental cause."

How the influence of climate could affect one portion of a species and not the other, when both reside in the same climate, and feed nearly on the same food; or what accidental cause could produce a difference so striking, and also so regular, as exists between the two, are, I confess, matters beyond my comprehension. But, if it be recollected, that the bird which the Count was thus philosophizing upon, was nothing more than the female Baltimore oriole, which exactly corresponds to the description of his male bastard Baltimore, the difficulties at once vanish, and with them the whole superstructure of theory founded on this mistake. Dr Latham, also, while he confesses the great confusion and uncertainty that prevail between the true and bastard Baltimore, and their females, considers it highly probable that the whole will be found to belong to one and the same species, in their different changes of colour. In this conjecture, however, the worthy naturalist has likewise been mistaken; and I shall endeavour to point out the fact, as well as this source of this mistake.

And here I cannot but take notice of the name which naturalists have bestowed on this bird, and which is certainly remarkable. Specific names, to be perfect, ought to express some peculiarity, common to no other

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