The Golden Oriole (Onoius gaituia) 



By F. E. L. Beal 



Length : 8 inches. 



Range: Tropical, southwestern Mexico, Central America, rare along the 

 southern border of the United States. 



It derives its name from the bright golden yellow with which the feathers 

 of the adult male bird are largely tinged. We find the Golden Oriole in America 

 only. According to Mr. Nuttall, it is migratory, appearing in considerable num- 

 bers in west Florida, about the middle of March. It is a good songster, and, in 

 a state of captivity, imitates various tunes. 



This beautiful bird feeds on fruits and insects, and its nest is constructed of 

 blades of grass, wool, hair, fine strings and various vegetable fibers, which are 

 so curiously interwoven as to confine and sustain each other. The nest is usually 

 suspended from a forked or slender branch in shape like a deep basin, and 

 generally lined with fine feathers. 



"On arriving at their breeding locality they appear full of life and activity, 

 darting incessantly through the lofty branches of the tallest trees, appearing and 

 vanishing restlessly, flashing at intervals into sight and amidst the tender, waving 

 foliage, and seem like living gems intended to decorate the verdant garments of 

 the fresh-clad forest." 



It is said these birds are so attached to their young that the female has 

 been taken and conveyed on her eggs, upon which, with resolute and fatal instinct, 

 she remained faithfully sitting until she expired. 



An Indiana gentleman relates the following story : 



"When I was a boy, living in the hilly country of southern Indiana, I 

 remember very vividly the nesting of a pair of fine orioles. There stood in the 

 barnyard a large and tall sugar tree with limbs within six or eight feet of the 

 ground. 



"At about thirty feet above the ground I discovered evidences of an oriole 

 nest. A few days later I noticed they had done considerable more work, and 

 that they were using horsehair, wool and fine strings. 



"They appeared to have some knowledge of spinning, as they would take 

 a horsehair and seemingly wrap it with wool before placing it in a position on 

 the nest." 



How Birds Protect Trees 



By Florence Merrian Bailey 



Trees are like great hotels — they are so alive with their busy little insect 

 people. Like hotels, when we are looking for rooms, there is a choice between 

 outside ones and dark inside ones. The outside ones are in cracks in the bark. 

 Here, in the fall, visiting moths stow away their eggs in snug winter bedchambers, 



216 



