200 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



the head and throat, occurs in late winter or early spring, before the 

 birds come north, at which time the young male acquires the black 

 throat, or a number of black feathers in that region, and a few chest- 

 nut feathers more or less scattered over the body. Young males 

 are known to have bred in this plumage. Young females have an 

 even more limited molt at this season. Adults have a limited 

 prenuptial molt about the head and throat. 



Young birds and adults have a complete postnuptial molt in early 

 fall after they have gone south, at which time the adult winter plum- 

 age is assumed. This is like the spring plumage, except that the 

 brown and black colors of the male are heavily veiled and nearly 

 concealed by buff or yellowish tips which wear away before spring. 

 Old females sometimes have a few black feathers in the throat. 



Dickey and van Rossem (1938) throw some light on the molts of 

 the orchard oriole, based on specimens collected in El Salvador: 



On arrival in mid-August these orioles are in fearfully abraded plumage, for 

 they have, contrary to the usual custom, completed the migration before the 

 annual molt has taken place. This is true of adults and young alike, and when 

 the latter arrive they are still in soft, juvenal feather. The process of annual 

 renewal is a relatively slow one, and not until the latter part of October (in one 

 case November 4) is the new plumage completely acquired. Males in their 

 second year, that is, those which have molted from the black-throated, greenish 

 plumage of the first year to the first, brown, subadult plumage, are characterized 

 by broad buffy tipping to the feathers of the body plumage. This tipping makes 

 such males superficially more or less like Icterus fuertesi, but most of the lighter 

 color wears off by midwinter. During early April some 1-year-old spring males 

 show a limited spring molt involving both the chin and throat, and some new 

 lack feathers appear on these parts. 



Todd and Carriker (1922) collected an adult male in Colombia on 

 October 15, 1915, that was completing the postnuptial molt. "The 

 rectrices are about two-thirds grown, and the wings retain only the 

 two outermost primaries of the old dress." 



Food. — Judd (1902) studied the contents of 11 stomachs of the 

 orchard oriole, collected on a Maryland farm in May and June; the 

 food "was composed of 91 percent animal matter and 9 percent vege- 

 table matter. The latter part was nearly all mulberries; the former 

 was distributed as follows: Fly larvae, 1 percent; parasitic wasps, 

 2 percent; ants, 4 percent; bugs, 5 percent; caterpillars, 12 percent; 

 grasshoppers, including a few crickets, 13 percent; beetles, 14 percent; 

 May-flies, 27 percent; spiders, 13 percent. Thus beneficial insects — 

 parasitic wasps — formed only 2 percent of the food, and injurious 

 species — caterpillars, grasshoppers, and harmful beetles — amounted 

 to 38 percent." 



Bendire (1895) writes: "Few birds do more good and less harm 

 than our Orchard Oriole, especially to the fruit grower. The bulk of 



