414 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
“This Oriole has history blended with his name; for it is 
said that George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, tired 
and discouraged by many of the troubles of his Newfound- 
land 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 conspicuous 
among them, vast flocks of Orioles. These so pleased 
him that he took their colours for his own and they ever 
afterward bore his name — a fair exchange. 
‘The Baltimore Oriole comes of a party-coloured American 
family — Icteride — 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 harbour the Bobolink, Orchard and Baltimore 
Orioles, Redwing, Meadowlark, various Grackles, to- 
gether with the vagrant Cowbird, in the branches of the 
same family tree? 
“One of the many welcome facts concerning the Oriole 
is the ease with which he is identified; and I say he ad- 
visedly, for his more industrious half, who is the expert 
weaver of the pair, is much the more sombre of hue. In 
early May, or even as late as the middle of the month in 
backward seasons, you will hear a half-militant, half- 
complaining note from the high tree-branches. As you 
go out to find its origin, it will be repeated, and then a 
flash of flame and black will shoot across the range of 
vision toward another tree, and the bird, chiding and com- 
plaining, begins a minute search along the smaller twigs 
for insects. This is the Oriole, Icterus galbula, as he 
first appears in full spring array,—his head, throat, and 
