BIRDS OF KANSAS. 403 



Similar to adult female, but suffused with brownish, especially on upper parts. 

 (^Ridgway.) 



stretch of 

 Length. wing: IVing. Tail, Tarsus. Bill. 



Male 6.50 9.50 3.00 3.00 .75 .60 



Female... 6.30 9.15 2.80 2.80 .75 .60 



Iris dark brown; bill, upper black, under pale blue; legs, feet 

 and claws bluish black. 



This species is rarely met with in the northern United States, 

 but is very common in the middle and southern portions. Its 

 favorite resorts are along the prairie streams skirted with timber, 

 and the groves and orchards about our dwellings; an active, 

 restless bird, ever upon the move, flying and hopping about 

 among the branches of trees, often swinging head downward 

 in its search for insect life, upon which it almost wholly feeds 

 during the early breeding season, singing as it flies, or from 

 the perch uttering its hurried but pleasing song, which is occa- 

 sionally heard in autumn. 



Their nests are suspended from twigs, at the end of branches 

 of small trees, along the banks of streams and in orchards and 

 gardens; a beautiful, hemispherical nest, made wholly of along, 

 slender, wire-like grass, and occasionally bits of a cottony sub- 

 stance, neatly and ingeniously woven together and around the 

 leaf -like twigs that support it. Eggs four or five, .85x. 60; pale 

 bluish white, thinly marked with specks and zigzag lines of 

 light to reddish brown and lilac, thickest about larger end; in 

 form, oval. 



Subgenus YPHANTES Vieillot. 



Depth of bill at base equal to half the length of the exposed culmen. {Ridg- 

 way.) 



Icterus galbula (Linn.). 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 

 PLATE XXVI. 



Summer resident; common. Arrive the last of April to first 

 of May; begin laying the last of May; return the last of August 

 to middle of September. 



B. 415. E. 271. C. 826. G. 136, 196. U. 507. 



Habitat. Eastern North America; north to New Brunswick 

 and Manitoba, west to the base of the Rocky Mountains; souths 

 in winter to Panama. 



