679 



BULLOCK S ORIOLE. 



brilliaut hues, being plain olive-gre}^ above and whitish beneatli 

 with pale yellow on the head, breast and some other parts. The 

 young male at first resembles the female. This is onl}' one of 

 countless cases in which the sexes bear such relations in color. 

 The mother-bird, almost defenceless amidst many dangers, and 

 wholly incapal)le of protecting her young, is shielded by her hum- 

 ble o-arb, matching the foliage in which she lives, that she niay 

 pass to and from her nest unobperv.ed, and accomplish her impor- 

 tant maternal offices in safety. We may judge how well this be- 

 neficent design is accomplished, by a glance at any of our large 

 collections 

 where this spe- 

 cies is repre- 

 sented ; for a 

 dozen or more 

 of the richly at- 

 tired males will 

 be found for one 

 of the female. 



Of the many 

 beautiful ori- 

 oles that inhabit 

 Tropical Ameri- 

 ca, only two — 

 t h e Baltimore 

 and the orchard 

 — range north- 

 ward tlu-ough the Eastern United States. In the Avest, several 

 kinds reach our southern borders, but Bullock's is the onl}' one that 

 proceeds further north. Its distribution in the Avest corresponds, 

 in a general v^ay, Avith that of the Baltimore in the east. It inhab- 

 its all the wooded portions of the Rocky Mountain and Pacific re- 

 gions of the United States ; in most of its range it is separated 

 from the hubitat of the Baltimore b}' the intervening treeless Cen- 

 tral Plateau, though the two species approach closely, if indeed 

 they may not be found together, along the Upper Missouri. We 

 have no record of its reaching into British America, l)ut should 

 not be surprised to learn that it extends its range beyond the Uni- 

 ted States iu summer. Being strictly a migratory species, like 

 all of its ffimily, it [)asses south iu tlie fall, to winter iu the 



'^;'v;;-'" 



Bullock's Oriole. 



