LAND BIRDS. 449 



song. Bicknell notes the fact that it sings regularly on the wing and 

 "passes with uninterrupted song from tree to tree." It is most often seen 

 searching for insects among the terminal sprays of blossoming trees. 



It seldom visits the ground, and, at least while with us, its food consists 

 mainly of insects. It is very fond of plant-lice, small caterpillars, and the 

 flies and wasps found about blossoms. According to Bendire it also eats 

 beetles, rose-bugs, grasshoppers and cabbage worms, as well as "larv8B 

 of all kinds." Two specimens were killed in an orchard overrun with 

 canker worms in Tazewell County, 111., in 1881, and the contents of their 

 stomachs studied by Professor S. A. Forbes. He found that nearly four- 

 fifths of their food was cankerworms, while other caterpillars formed all 

 but three percent of the remainder, this being ants. Butler states that in 

 Indiana when the young leave the nest the whole family go into the corn- 

 fields and feed upon the insect enemies of the corn. 



It feeds sparingly on fruits, mainly wild varieties. It also, like the 

 Baltimore Oriole, probes flowers for insects and possibly for nectar, and 

 seems to pinch off and eat stamens quite freely, but since the species is not 

 abundant, this work, as well as the work on small fruits, may be entirely 

 disregarded. 



Its nest, unlike that of its nearest relative, the Baltimore Oriole, is seldom 

 completely pensile; although deeply cup-shaped and basket-like, it is most 

 often attached to twigs at the sides as well as at the rim, so that it never 

 swings freely. It is most often found in orchard trees, but the bird is not' 

 very particular and sometimes selects oaks, elms, cottonwoods, maples, 

 hackberries, and even occasionally the red cedar or pine. The nest is seldom 

 placed at any considerable height, usually from eight to twenty feet above 

 the ground. The material is almost invariably slender grass, which is 

 commonly used green and often retains this color for months afterward. 

 It is woven and fastened with the same skill possessed by other species 

 of the family and forms a neat and remarkably durable nest. The eggs 

 are from four to six, usually five, bluish-white, spotted and pen-scratched 

 with brown, purple and lavender. They average .79 by .57 inches. The 

 nest is seldom built before the last week in May, and in Kalamazoo county 

 fresh eggs were taken by Westnedge and Syke at various times from May 

 27 to June 11. Dr. R. H. Wolcott records a nest with young at New 

 Baltimore, Macomb county, July 20, 1893. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Bill conical, acute, slightly down-curved toward the end; tail shorter than wing, slightly- 

 graduated, the lateral feathers less than half an inch shorter than the middle pair. 



Adult male: Entire head, neck, anterior half of back, scapulars, throat and chest, deep 

 black; breast, belly, imder tail-coverts, sides, lesser and middle wing-coverts, lower back, 

 rump and upper tail-coverts, rich deep chestnut; greater wing-coverts black, narrowly 

 tipped with whitish; tail black; bill black above, horn-blue at the base of lower mandible; 

 iris pale brown. 



Adult female: Yellowish olive above, brightest on head and rump, grayer or browner 

 on back and scapulars; wings with two whitish bars; under parts light greenish-yellow; 

 no chestnut any^vhere. Young: At first like the female, but the second season the 

 young male has the lores, chin and throat deep black, and frequently a few black or chestnut 

 feathers here and there. Probably three years are necessary for the attainment of full 

 plumage. 



Length to 7.25; wing 2.90 to 3.25; tail 2.65 to 3.20. 



57 



