THE ORCHARD ORIOLE 



By WITMER STONE 



^^t iI5ational association of jaudubon Societies 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 42 



There are several bird voices that in my mind are esijeciall\- associated with 

 the apple orchard, — the mournful cooing of the Dove, the monotonous call of the 

 Wood Pewee, and the lively chant of the Orchard Oriole. 



The last is a song that at once attracts our attention, — a rapid series of clear 

 notes, fairly tumbhng over one another, as they suddenly break upon the ear, 

 and stopping abruptly before we liave located the performer. 

 Song It is a song that recalls, in some respects, that of the Warbling 



Mre(^ while the rapid sequence of notes reminds one of the rol- 

 licking medley of the Bobolink. Compared with the song of the Baltimore Oriole, 

 it lacks strength and fullness of tone, but is much more delicate. The Orchard 

 Oriole is a persistent singer, and during the nesting season his lively melody is 

 heard continually, even during the heat of midday. Sometimes, like the Bobolink, 

 he sings on the wing, but only when passing rapidly from one tree-top to another. 



He is not, as one might judge from his name, exclusiveh- an inhabitant of the 

 orcliard, but is equally at home among the shade trees about the house or along 

 the village streets, especially in the thick foliage of the Norway 

 Haunts spruces which are frequently planted about our lawns. Always 



during the breeding season, however, the Orchard Oriole is dis- 

 tinctly a bird of the cultivated land immediately about man's habitation, rather 

 than of the wilder, wooded country. When the nesting cares are over, the Orioles 

 scatter more widely, and we often come upon little family parties foraging along 

 the fence-rows and wood edges far from liouse or garden. Originally, before there 

 were an}- orchards to lure him awa\', the Orchard Oriole was an inhabitant of 

 wooded river banks, according to Mr. Widmann's ex]jerience in Missouri; and 

 in Pennsylvania I have found them in such localities along the wilder i)arts 

 of the lower Susquehanna vallew 



It is no easy matter to locate the singing Oriole, as he clings closely to the 

 shelter offered by the dense foliage of the tree tops. Xow and then, however, he 

 flies rapidly from one favorite feeding-spot to another, or back to the nest-trce. 

 As he comes suddenly into view on one of these flights, he always seems smaller 

 than one would e.xpect; probably the volume of his song, or our familiarity with 

 his relative, the Baltimore Oriole, leads us to picture him larger than he really is. 

 His actual length is seven inches, nearly an inch shorter than the Baltimore. 



The food of the Orchard Oriole consists largely of caterpillars and other 

 insects that he finds among the tree-tops; but, now and then, especially after the 

 breeding season, we see an individual alight in the o])en fields, often on plowed 



U4) 



