120 " UPON THE TREE-TOP.'' 



able to study carefully enough to reduce their 

 song to the musical scale, though all having the 

 same compass, arranged the notes differently in 

 every case. The oriole is, of course, not lim- 

 ited in expression to his song. I have spoken 

 of his cry of distress or of war, which was two 

 tones slurred together. The ordinary call, as 

 he goes about a tree, especially a fruit-tree in 

 bloom, seeking insects over and under each leaf 

 or blossom, is a single note, loud and clear. If 

 a pair are on the tree together, it is the same, 

 but much softer. 



An oriole that I watched in the Catskill 

 Mountains regularly fed his mate while she was 

 sitting, and as he left the nest after giving her 

 a morsel, he uttered two notes which sounded 

 exactly like " A-dieu," adding, after a pause, 

 two more which irresistibly said, "Dear-y." 

 There was a peculiar mournf ulness in this bird's 

 strain, as if he implied " It 's a sad world ; a 

 world of cats and crows and inquisitive people, 

 and we may never meet again." Perhaps it 

 was prophetic, for disaster did overtake the lit- 

 tle family; a high wind rocked the cradle — 

 which also was on a small maple-tree — so vio- 

 lently as to throw out the youngsters before 

 they could fly. The accident was remedied aa 

 far as possible by returning them to the nest, 

 but whether they were injured by the fall I 

 never learned. 



