ONTARIO. 



or sails from one tree in the orchard to another. This species 

 would be a desirable acquisition to our garden birds, both on 

 account of his pleasing plumage of black and brown, and because 

 of the havoc he makes among the insect pests which frequent our 

 fruit trees. 



Subgenus YPHANTES Vieillot. 



19(5. ICTERUS GALBULA (Linn.). 507. 



Baltimore Oriole. 



Male, with head and neck all round, and the back, black ; rump, upper- 

 tail coverts, lesser wing-coverts, most of the tail feathers, and all the under- 

 parts from the throat, fiery-orange, but of varying intensity according to age 

 and season. Middle tail feathers black, the middle and greater coverts and 

 inner quills, more or less edged and tipped with white, but the white on the 

 coverts not forming a continuous patch ; bill and feet blue-black. Length, 

 7^-8 ; tail, 3. Female smaller, and much paler, the black obscured by olive, 

 sometimes entirely wanting. The young entirely without the black on throat 

 and head, otherwise colored nearly like the female. 



Hab. Eastern United States, west nearly to the Rocky Mountains. 



Nest, purse shaped ; pensile ; about 6 inches deep ; composed chiefly of 

 vegetable fibre, with which is often intertwisted rags, paper, thread, twine 

 and other foreign substances ; usually suspended from the outer branches of 

 a tree, most frequently an elm, at a height of lo to 50 feet from the ground. 



Eggs, 4 to 6 ; white, faintly tinged with blue. 



The gay, dashing, flashing Baltimore Oriole seems to court 

 the admiration so generally bestowed on him, and is much more 

 frequently seen among the ornamental trees in our parks and 

 pleasure grounds than in the more retired parts of the country. 

 He arrives from the south with wonderful regularity about the 

 end of the first week in May, after which his clear flute-like 

 notes are heard at all hours of the day till the early part of July, 

 when with his wife and family he retires, probably to some shady 

 region to avoid the extreme heat of summer. At all events they 

 are not seen in Southern Ontario again till the beginning of 

 September, when they pay us a passing visit while on their way 

 to winter quarters. The species seems to be well distributed in 

 Ontario, for in the report of the " Ottawa Field Naturalists' 

 Club" it is said to be common, arriving in that district about the 

 loth of May. It is also included in the list of birds observed at 

 Moose Mountain in the Northwest by Prof. Macoun. 



199 



