BULLOCK'S ORIOLE 275 



often within a few inches of my face, and I could see distinctly by his 

 throat actions that he was drinking the nectar therefrom. Never did 

 he show indications of picking out insect life from the deep tubes. All 

 the time he was feeding, which was usually long enough for a visit to 

 each flower, he kept talking to himself, uttering a musical peep note. 

 Later in the day either this oriole or another of the same kind would 

 search the crimson flowers of the ocotillos on the other side of the 

 house in the same manner, but I never saw the oriole among the Bird 

 of Paradise plants at any other time than its regular dawn visits. 

 Evidently this exotic plant does not produce nectar in its cups during 

 daytime." 



W. Otto Emerson (1904) observed these orioles feeding on honey in 

 the blossoms of the eucalyptus trees; one that he shot had its crop so 

 full of the honey that it oozed out of its mouth when he picked it up. 

 Ridgway (1877) noticed that, in Nevada, in May, "they were then 

 subsisting chiefly on the tender buds of the greese-wood," as were 

 some other birds. Bullock's orioles also feed to some extent on apri- 

 cots, persimmons, hawthorn berries, and probably many other wild 

 fruits and berries. 



Claude T. Barnes writes to me from Utah: "For half an hour I 

 stood beneath an elm tree observing a pair of Bullock orioles. Some 

 of the leaves were so infected with lice that they were curled edge to 

 edge, and each oriole was busy working its bill into leaf after leaf. 

 When standing on a branch without eating, each bird uttered a chup 

 every second or so." 



These orioles are helpful in destroying the cotton boll weevil. A. H. 

 Howell (1907) writes: "These orioles are rather abundant in the 

 regions they inhabit, and in August and September visit the cotton 

 fields in flocks of 10 to 20 individuals. About 27 percent of those 

 examined contained boll weevils, the largest number of weevils found in 

 one stomach being 41. The total number of weevils eaten by 40 

 birds was 133, an average of over 3 weevils to each bird." 



They do good work on the alfalfa weevil, also. E. R. Kalmbach 

 (1914) says: "Although the alfalfa weevil in all its stages is found 

 most frequently on or near the ground, it was present in each of 

 seven stomachs collected. Two birds taken in June had fed on it to 

 the extent of 8)i percent of their food, while in the following month it 

 formed nearly twice that amount. One bird collected in July had 

 eaten no less than 21 adults, equaling 30 percent of its food. No 

 larvae were taken by these birds even though this form of the insect 

 was in great abundance, so that the adults may have been captured 

 either on the wing or upon branches of trees which had intercepted 

 their flight." 



That these orioles can catch insects on the wing is shown by the 



