BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 595 



with which it associates, being about the 58th parallel, but 

 has not been seen eastward of Lake Winnipeg, or the Mis- 

 sissippi. It arrives on the banks of the latter from the 

 southward in the middle of May, and by the 20th of the 

 same month it is seen on the plains of the Saskatchewan, 

 where associated with its sable relative, as already mention- 

 ed, and with the Purple Grakle, but in even greater num- 

 bers, they commit serious havoc in the corn-fields, tearing up 

 the sprouting grain with the greatest boldness and perse- 

 verance, returning to one side of the field as fast nearly as 

 they are chased from the other. Their manners, in short, 

 are precisely like those of the Red- Wings. It would ap- 

 pear that this species, distinct from the icterocephalus, is yet 

 unknown in the other parts of the continent ; though in the 

 range of the Rocky Mountains it will no doubt commonly 

 visit Mexico. 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



(Icterus Baltimore, Daudin. Bonap. No. 49. Rich, and Swains. 

 North. Zool. ii. p. 284. Nutt. Man. Orn. i. p. 152.) 



The summer range of this beautiful bird in the fur coun- 

 tries extends to the 55th degree of latitude, arriving on the 

 plains of the Saskatchewan, according to Richardson about 

 the 10th of May, or nearly as early as their arrival in Mas- 

 sachusetts. Those which thus visit the wilds of Canada, in 

 all probability proceed at once from Mexico or ascend the 

 great valley of the Mississippi and Missouri. 



Since publishing the account of this bird in the first vol- 

 ume of the present Manual, I have had a male bird in a state 

 of domestication, raised from the rest very readily on fresh 

 minced meat soaked in milk. When established, his princi- 

 pal food was scalded indian corn-meal, on which he fed con- 



