Oriolus baltimore, Linn. Syst. Nat. I, 1766, 162.—Wilson, Am. Orn. I, 1808, 23, pl. i.—Ib. VI, 1812, pl. liii. “Icterus baltimore, Daud.”—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 66; V, 1839, 278, pls. xii. and ccccxxiii.—Ib. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 37, pl. ccxvii.—Baird, Birds N. Am. 1858, 548.—Sclater & Salvin, Ex. Orn. I, 69, 188 (diagnosis).—Samuels, 348. Yphantes baltimore, Vieillot, Gal. des Ois. I, 1824, 124, pl. lxxxvii. Psarocolius baltimore, Wagler, Syst. Av. 1825, No. 26. Le Baltimore, Buff. pl. enl. 506, f. 1. Hyphantes b., Cass. Pr. 1867, 62.
Sp. Char. Tail nearly even. Head all round and to middle of back, scapulars, wings, and upper surface of tail, black; rest of under parts, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lesser wing-coverts, with terminal portion of tail-feathers (except two innermost), orange-red. Edges of wing-quills, with a band across the tips of the greater coverts, white. Length, 7.50 inches; wing, 3.75.
The female much less brilliant in color; the black of the head and back generally replaced by brownish-yellow, purer on the throat; each feather with a black spot.
Hab. From Atlantic coast to the high Central Plains, and in their borders; south to Panama. Xalapa (Scl. 1856, 365); Guatemala (Scl. Ibis, I, 20); Cuba (Caban. J. IV, 10); Costa Rica (Caban. J. 1861, 7; Lawr. IX, 104); Panama (Lawr. N. Y. Lyc. 1861, 331); Veragua (Salv. 1867, 142); Mosquito Coast (Scl. & Salv. 1867, 279); Vera Cruz (autumn, Sum. M. B. S. I, 553).
A young bird is soft, dull orange beneath, palest on the throat, and tinged along the sides with olive; above olive, with an orange cast on the rump and tail, the latter being without any black; centres of dorsal feathers blackish; wings blackish, with two broad white bands across coverts, and broad edges of white to the tertials.
Specimens collected in Western Kansas, by Mr. J. A. Allen, have the middle wing-coverts pure white instead of deep orange, and, according to that naturalist, have more slender bills than Eastern birds. Mr. Allen thinks they form a race peculiar to the plains; but in examining the series of specimens in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, we have failed to discover any constancy in this respect. A male (5,356, Farm Isl., May 30) from Nebraska has the middle wing-coverts pure white,—the lesser, clear orange; the black throat-stripe is almost separated from the black of the cheeks by the extension forward of the orange on each side of it, only the tips of the feathers being black.
No. 61,192 ♂, Mount Carmel, Ill. (August 12), has the throat-stripe even more isolated, being connected anteriorly for only about a quarter of an inch with the black of the jaw; there is also a distinct indication of an orange
superciliary stripe, mostly concealed, however, by the black tips of the feathers. The middle coverts, like the lesser, are pure plain orange.
A male from Cape May, N. J. (59,458, May), has the middle coverts white, and the lesser wholly uniform black. The head, however, is as in typical specimens.
In a series of twenty adult spring males from Carlisle, Penn., seven have the middle coverts more or less white. But it is noticed that all these specimens with white middle coverts have invariably less intense colors than those with orange shoulders, while in the Kansas specimens the other colors are of the brightest character.