ORCHARD ORIOLE 193 



Francis M. Weston writes to me from Pensacola, Fla.: "The orchard 

 oriole is an early migrant, usually arriving during the last week of 

 March in northward flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Normally, it 

 is common; but when incoming flights meet adverse weather condi- 

 tions — rain, heavy fog or strong northerly winds — and several succes- 

 sive days' arrivals are halted and weather-bound in this coastal area, 

 they become unbelievably abundant. At such times, I have seen 

 hundreds of orioles in city parks and gardens or in a single small 

 patch of woods. Under these conditions, and when their sojourn 

 happens to coincide with the bloom period of the black locust (Robinia 

 pseudo-acacia), the orioles show marked preference for this species of 

 tree. Whether they actually feed on the flower parts or are attracted 

 by the insects that swarm in the scented blossoms, I do not know; 

 but on April 15, 1934, I counted 40 orioles busily feeding in two locust 

 trees that stood side by side in a city garden. 



"On the first day that the weather becomes propitious for a continua- 

 tion of the interrupted northward flight, the nonresident orioles 

 prepare to leave. They become restless late in the afternoon and 

 resort to the tops of the tallest trees, where their bright colors glow 

 in the last, level rays of the setting sun. Frequent tentative starts 

 are made by small groups, which circle a time or two and then return 

 to their perches. The birds are still there when the light fails and the 

 observer on the ground can no longer distinguish them against the 

 darkening sky. The actual 'take-off' may come shortly after dark. 

 Certainly, by morning not an oriole is left in a patch of woods that 

 harbored hundreds the evening before." 



As a migrant in Cuba, according to Barbour (1923), "The Orchard 

 Oriole appears occasionally in spring in company with Baltimore 

 Orioles or alone. It seems possible that they are regular migrants, 

 and have been overlooked among the native Orioles in immature 

 dress." Earle R. Greene (1946) reports it as a "fairly common 

 spring migrant" along the lower Florida Keys from April 9 to 22. 

 A. H. Howell (1932) says: "On the Tortugas, migrants were reported 

 April 11, 1890, April 14, 1909 (abundant), and April 26 to 28, 1914. 

 There is but one record from Key West — April 29, 1887." He goes 

 on to give a number of dates for the west coast of Florida, but none 

 for the east coast, where this oriole seems to be an extremely rare 

 migrant south of St. Johns County. From the above it appears that 

 the orchard oriole advances from its tropical winter home on a broad 

 front from eastern Mexico and Texas to the Gulf coast of Florida, 

 diminishing in numbers in the latter region. 



When the migrating birds leave the Gulf States, they advance 

 northward and rather rapidly on a similar broad front, though more 

 abundantly in the Mississippi Valley than on the Atlantic coast, 



