THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE 



By MABEL OSGOOD WRIGHT 



Top iRational ja00ociation of Audubon &ociftie0 



EDUCATIONAL LEAFLET NO. 26 



" Hush ! 'tis he ! 

 My Oriole, my glance of summer fire 

 Is come at last." — Lowell. 



We, who punctuate our reading of Nature's calendar with bird and 

 flower rather than by the artificial figures of the almanac, give to March 

 the Bluebird and Song Sparrow, the Redwing and the return of the Swal- 

 lows to April — and to May and June (for so does the rush of growth and 

 migration flood these months that they should be taken as a continuous 

 sixty-day jubilee), the Wood Thrush, Catbird and Oriole. 



In one reading of the matter the Baltimore Oriole should be first men- 

 tioned, for his voice is that of the bugler that heralds actual spring, the long- 

 expected, long-delayed mellow period, distinct from the almanac spring, 

 that, when it once comes to us of the middle and north country, is quickly 

 absorbed by the ardor of summer herself. Also is this Oriole the glori- 

 ously illuminated initial letter wrought in ruddy-gold and black pigments, 

 heading the chapter that records the season; and, when we see him high in 

 a tree against a light tracery of fresh foliage, we know in very truth that not 

 only is winter over, that the treacherous snow-squalls of April are past, but 

 that May is working day and night to complete the task allotted. 



For as the Indian waited for the blooming of the dogwood, Cornus 

 floriaa., before planting his maize, so does the prudent gardener wait for 

 the first call of the Oriole before she trusts her cellar-wintered geraniums 

 and lemon balms once more to the care of mother earth. 



This Oriole has history blended with his name; for it is 

 and Identt ^^^^ ^^^^ George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, tired and 

 discouraged by many of the troubles of his Newfoundland 

 colony, in visiting the Virginia settlement in 1628, explored the waters of the 

 Chesapeake, where he found the shores and woods alive with birds, and, con- 

 spicuous among them, vasts fiocks of Orioles. These so pleased him that he 

 took their colors for his own and they ever afterward bore his name — a fair 

 exchange. 



The Baltimore Oriole comes of a parti -colored American family — Icter- 

 idas — that to the eye of the uninitiated at least would appear to be a hybrid 

 clan drawn from all quarters of the bird world. Yet it is typically American, 

 even in this variety; for what other race would have the temerity to har- 



(134) 



