180 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



corner of the farm-house yard, from the elms and willows 

 fringing the banks of rivers and creeks, as well as from 

 the stately rows of trees along the town and city high- 

 ways, the cheery Baltimore bird proclaims his happiness 

 in no doubtful tones. However, though his music springs 

 from a gay and joyous heart, its chief quality is its well- 

 expressed plaintiveness, or rather its clear appeal to the 

 pensive side of our nature; and ever from the oriole flows 

 that stream of plaintive melody, eloquent to the sym- 

 pathetic soul of the observant student of nature. 



Following the males within a day, or sometimes a week, 

 the females join them as though by due appointment. 

 Their courtships are not conducted with the ardor of their 

 relatives, the bobolinks and meadow larks. If they are 

 birds of last year's brood, they perhaps had a tacit under- 

 standing before their northward journey, and it only re- 

 mains after their arrival to seal the compact and make a 

 selection of a suitable nesting site. If they are older 

 birds, they are perhaps mated for life, and return to the 

 last year's nest as a matter of course, beginning immedi- 

 ately to consider the advisability of remaining another 

 year at the old stand. Several weeks are spent in dalli- 

 anceamong the buds and blossoms,and in discussing with 

 their neighbors the prospects of the pea crop and the pear 

 harvest. Then nidification begins and life drifts into the 

 monotony of a well-regulated household. 



Like other familiar birds, the Baltimore orioles discover 

 a strong attachment for the places chosen as their homes 

 in preceding seasons. A pair has been known to nest 

 repeatedly in the same tree, returning regularly to the 

 same spot each succeeding year, and either using the old 

 nest after thoroughly renovating it, or else building a new 

 home near the site of the former structure. The elms 

 and maples along the highwaysin townsand cities furnish 

 them safe building sites, removed from squirrels and snakes, 

 and generally from owls, and usually beyond the reach of 

 the investigations of the small boy. Willowsalong rivers 

 and creeks, and woodlands generally near human habita- 

 tions are tenanted by the orioles. Often they place their 

 nests under direct observation from an upper window or 



