88 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE, 



daily visits of our two orioles, Bul- 

 lock's oriole, a gorgeous fellow in bril- 

 liant gold and black, and the hooded 

 oriole, scarcely less showy. Both these 

 birds are extravagantly fond of sweets 

 and both spend hours every day at the 

 feast spread out for them, so that we 

 learn to know them well. 



OLIVE THORNE MILLER 



The singing of the western orioles 

 is peculiar and in marked contrast to 

 the loud, clear songs of the Baltimore 

 and orchard orioles of the eastern 

 states. In both species the only songs 

 I have heard in nearly four years' study 

 of them, have been very low, of a 

 strange, weird, "squeaky" character 

 impossible to describe, and delivered 

 in jerky, inconsequent fashion though 

 with all the airs and graces of a stage 

 performance. 



One day I caught the hooded, who 

 is the more abundant in this vicinity. 



in a queer little display. He was stand- 

 ing in a sort of nook or niche formed 

 by several branches of a live-oak tree, 

 and so hidden that he could be seen 

 only from one point, where fortunately 

 I happened to be sitting, partially con- 

 cealed by a spreading vine. 



He was apparently exerting all his 

 musical powers accompa- 

 nied by the action of a pub- 

 lic performance, turning 

 from side to side, bowing 

 this way and that, posing 

 as if before an audience, 

 opening and closing his 

 beak, evidently a most e- 

 laborate performance ; and 

 with all this show, he ut- 

 tered no sound that I could 

 hear twenty feet away, in 

 the perfect stillness of a 

 summer day on a lonely 

 orange ranch. It was the 

 most curious and uncanny 

 exhibition I ever saw. 



Another time, being at- 

 tracted by very low, discon- 

 nected bird notes outside 

 my window. I cautiously 

 peeped out and saw an ori- 

 ole going with great delib- 

 eration over a rose vine 

 which covered the end of 

 the piazza, snapping up 

 aphides and whispering his 

 quaint song between the 

 mouthfuls, a sort of solilo- 

 quy. It was exactly as a 

 person will sometimes go 

 about his work "humming" 

 a song to himself as he 

 goes. 

 It is plain to see that these two 

 orioles are "characters" with habits 

 and ways of their own, which I hope 

 some dav to know better. 



For, Not To. 



A pair of quail when first put in 

 the cage went rushing and fluttering 

 around for a few days. Now they 

 really live and grow in the cage. I 

 wonder whether au-tomobilists will 

 ever quiet down after the first years 

 of novelty and really live; will then 

 go for something, not merely to a place. 



