166 BIRDS 



tlie exquisite nursery at the tip of some swaying elm 

 bough. (Fig. 85.) 



The nests are difficult to find and many a last sum- 

 mer's Oriole home, hanging within a few feet of the 

 sidewalk, is revealed only when the frost king has visited 

 the leaves and the autumn breezes have stripped the pro- 

 tecting foliage from the trees. You are much amazed 

 and chagrined because of your failure to find one of these 

 nests in all your painstaking efforts during the summer 

 months. 



It is a charming sight to see these birds, with their 

 flashes of brilliant orange and jet black, darting through 

 the green of the nest tree while constructing their nests 

 or feeding their young. (Fig. 86.) 



Orioles are fruit and insect eating, and are strictly 

 tree birds; they are among our best singers. During 

 the moulting period, in early August, they cease their 

 singing and live in seclusion and are rarely heard or seen 

 until just a few weeks before they start southward in 

 October. 



