Oriole WESTERN BIRDS 



meadowlark to every four acres of available land for 

 cultivation (11,000,000 acres) in the Sacramento and San 

 Joaquin valleys, and that each pair of birds raises an 

 average of four young, each one of which averages one 

 ounce in weight while in the nest and consumes its own 

 weight of food each day, it takes 193 tons of insect food 

 each day to feed the young birds in the great valleys 

 alone. The number of birds probably exceed the number 

 suggested. The increased consumption of insect food 

 due to nestling birds comes at a time when insects are 

 most numerous, and so is instrumental in helping to pre- 

 vent an undue increase of insects." 



SUBGENUS PENDULINUS: ARIZONA 

 HOODED ORIOLE. 



Arizona Hooded Oriole: Icterus cucullatus nelsoni. 

 FAMILY— BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



Arizona Hooded Oriole is a common summer resident 

 in southwestern California, southern Arizona, and south- 

 western New Mexico, south ; being very abundant in the 

 vicinity of Los Angeles, California. 



To my mind this is the handsomest of the Orioles, 

 being long and slender and a beautiful study in orange 

 and black. Before I ever saw this bird I looked for a 

 black-hooded bird, but the hood is orange, as is the rest 

 of the plumage, save for a deep rounded patch of black 

 on throat, black tail, foreback, and wings which have 

 two white bars. The length is nearly eight inches. The 

 female is dull, being plain yellow below and olive-green 

 above; wings brownish with two white bars. The first 

 year young resemble the females; the second year males 

 are still like the females save for a deep black throat 

 patch. The third season, or when the bird is two years 



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