BIRD BIOGRAPHIES 



considerable extent, but remains of such were found in 

 only two cases. One writer says that it damages grapes, 

 but none were found in the stomachs." ^ Professor Beal 

 lists caterpillars, beetles, bugs, ants, wasps, grasshoppers, 

 and some spiders as the "fare of the oriole." 



The nest and nesting habits of these birds are unusually 

 interesting. In Eaton's "Birds of New York" occurs the 

 following description: 



"The female is an ideal mother, defending her young 

 with great courage and caring for them in all kinds of 

 weather. The young, however, are not such ideal off- 

 spring as she ought to expect. From the time they begin 

 to feather out until several days after they have left the 

 nest, they keep up a continual cry for food. In this way 

 they are unquestionably located by many predaceous ani- 

 mals and thereby destroyed. The young orioles are usu- 

 ally out of the nest from the 20th of June to the 5th of 

 July [in New York State], and are very soon led away 

 by the old birds into the woods, groves, and dense hedge- 

 rows. Then we hear no more of the oriole's song until 

 the latter days of August or the first week in September, 

 when, after the autumn molt has been completed, the 

 males frequently burst into melody for a few days before 

 departing for their winter home. 



"As every one knows, the oriole builds a pensile nest, 

 usually suspending it from the drooping branches of an 

 elm tree, soft maple, apple tree, or in fact, any tree, though 

 his preference seems to be for the elm. The main con- 

 struction materials used by the oriole are gray plant-fibers, 

 especially those from the outside of milkweed stalks, 

 waste packing-cord and horsehair; sometimes pieces of 



3 Farmers' Bulletin 630, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



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