BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 283 



Their eggs, usually four, sometimes six, are flesh- colored, 

 and not unfrequently with a bluish shade, with lines of 

 lavender, over all of which are strongly marked scratches of 

 brown and black. 



The species is one of those which the agriculturist and 

 horticulturist ought to call "blessed," and to which he should 

 make an offering of all of his garden peas without a murmur, 

 in view of its extensive destruction of canker-worms, cater- 

 pillars, and other ruinous larvae. Its marvelous beauty, song, 

 and immeasurable service in the destruction of such indisput- 

 able numbers of his enemies, should forever secure it immunity 

 form his curses (for stealing his peas) as the cunning of the 

 location secures it from his cats. 



The devotion of the parents to their nests and offspring has 

 no more exalted illustration in bird-^biography, exposing them- 

 selves to all dangers and to death itself in their protection. 

 Instances of the capture of the young are on record where the 

 parents have followed them long distances and afterwards con- 

 tinued to feed them through the bars of their cage till full 

 grown. One kindred incident has found a place in North 

 American Birds, "where the female entered her nest while he 

 was in the act of severing the limb from which it was sus- 

 pended, and persisted in remaining there until the nest had 

 been cut off and taken into the house." (Ridgway.) 



Mr. Washburn in his Red river valley report to me says: 

 "Fairly common everywhere, in the timber along streams. 

 The richness and depth of color, reported as peculiar to 

 western birds of this species, is particularly noticable in birds 

 taken in the valley. The orange-yellow of some individuals 

 noticed was of such a deep hue as to be almost scarlet. " These 

 instances of intense coloration, come frequently under my obser- 

 vation in many different species, but so far as individuals are 

 involved, the difference is relatively no greater than those I 

 observed on the Pacific coast. Amongst all the highly colored 

 species, there is an annual advancement up to the fourth year, 

 and in some, including the present species, to the fifth year, as 

 extended, consecutive observations have established. 



For an instance, a young oriole of the species, when clam- 

 bering out into the parapet of its nest before being quite able to 

 fly, was blown off by a sudden gust of wind, onto the ground quite 

 near the residence of a friend who was very much interested 

 in birds. His cat seized it instantly but being on the spot he 

 rescued the victim, yet not until the cat had torn a piece of 



