BALTIMORE ORIOLE.
ICTERUS BALTIMORE Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of the United States, p. 51.
ORIOLUS BALTIMORE, Linn. Syst Nat. p. 1G2—Gmel. Syst. vol. i. p. 389.—Lath.
Ind. Ornith. vol. i. p. 180.
BALTIMORE ORIOLE, ORIOLUS BALTIMORE, Wilson, Amer. Ornith. vol, i. p 23.
PL i. fig. 3. Male; and vol. vi. p. 83. PI. 53. fig. 4. Female.
BALTIMORE BIRD, Lath. Synops. vol. ii. p. 432.
Adult Male, three years old, in spring. Plate XII. Fig. 1.
Bill conical, slender, longish, compressed, a little curved, very acute,
with inflected acute margins; upper mandible obtuse above, lower broadly
obtuse beneath. Nostrils oval, covered by a membrane, basal. Head
and neck of ordinary size. Body rather slender. Feet of ordinary length;
tarsus a little longer than the middle toe; inner toe little shorter than the
outer; claws arched, compressed, acute, that of the hind toe twice the
size of the others.
Plumage blended, glossy. Wings longish, somewhat rounded, the first
quill being almost as long as the second and third, which are the longest.
Tail longish, rounded, and slightly forked, the feathers rather narrow,
and acuminate.
Bill and feet light blue. Iris orange. Head, throat, back part of the
neck, fore part of the back, quills and larger secondaries, black, as are the
two middle tail-feathers, and the base of all the rest. The whole under
parts, the lesser wing-coverts, and the posterior part of the back, bright
orange, deeply tinged with vermilion on the breast and neck. The tips
of the two middle tail-feathers, and the terminal ends of the others, of a
duller orange. Quills, excepting the first, margined with white.
Length 7f inches, extent of wings 12 ; bill $ along the ridge, \ ? along
the gap ; tarsus \ , toe 1.
Male, two years old, in spring. Plate XII. Fig. 2.
The distribution of the colours is the same as in the adult male, but
the yellow is less vivid, the upper mandible is brownish-black above, and
the iris is light-brown.
Young Male, one year old, in spring. Plate XII. Fig. 1.
The bill is dark brown above, pale blue beneath. Iris brown. Feet
light blue. The general colour is dull brownish-yellow, tinged with olive
on the head and back. The wings are blackish-brown, the quills and
BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 71
large coverts margined and tipped with white. The lesser coverts are
olivaceous, the tail destitute of black, and the under parts paler than in
the adult, without any approach to the vivid orange tints displayed on it.
Length 7£ inches.
THE TULIP-TREE.
LIRIODENDRON TULIPIFERA, Willd. Sp. Plant, vol. ii. p. 1254. Pursh. Flora AnieNT,
p. 332. Mich. Abr. Forest, de l'Amer. Sept. t. iii. p. 202, PI. v—POLYANDRIA
POLYGYNIA, Linn. MAGNOLIA, JUSS.
This tree is one of the most beautiful of those indigenous to the United
States, and attains a height of seventy, eighty, or even a hundred feet.
The flowers are yellow and bright red, mixed with green, and upwards
of three inches in diameter. The leaves are ovate at the base, truncatobilobate
at the end, with one or two lobes on each side, all the lobes acuminate.
It is generally distributed, but prefers rich soils. Its bark is
smooth on the branches, cracked and fissured on the stems. The wood
is yellow, hard, but easily wrought, and is employed for numerous purposes,
particularly in the construction of houses, and for charcoal. The
Indians often form their canoes of it, for which purpose it is well adapted,
the trunk being of great length and diameter, and the wood light. In
different parts of the United States, it receives the names of Poplar, White
Wood, and Cane Wood.