SOME BIRDS THAT COME IN MAY 413 
THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE 
How falls it, Oriole, thou hast come to fly 
In tropic splendour through our northern sky? 
At some glad moment was it Nature’s choice 
To dower a scrap of sunset with a voice? 
Or did an orange tulip flaked with black, 
In some forgotten ages back, 
Yearning toward Heaven until its wish was heard, 
Desire unspeakably to be a bird ? 
— Epaar FAwcert. 
“The Baltimore Oriole should be first mentioned, 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 ardour of summer herself. Also is this Oriole the glo- 
riously 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 dog- 
wood, Cornus florida, 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. 
