A MIDSUMMER PRINCE. 239 
and by means of wings, bill, and claws are often able to 
reach places of safety. In one instance a fledgling which 
had broken both legs, and had been placed in a basket to 
be fed by its parents, managed by wings and bill to raise 
itself to the rim, and in a few days took its departure. To 
this dexterity in the use of the bill as a prehensile organ, 
the birds may owe their skill in weaving. 
The young are fed upon an insect diet, and mainly upon 
caterpillars which are disgorged after having been proper- 
ly swallowed by the parents. They leave the nest after a 
fortnight, but are attended by the parent birds ten days 
longer before being turned off to take care of themselves. 
The food of the Baltimore oriole, old and young, is almost 
entirely insectivorous, succulent young peas and the sta- 
mens of cherry and plum flowers forming the only excep- 
tions. These small robberies are but a slight compensation 
for the invaluable services he renders the gardener in the 
destruction of hosts of noxious insects. At first beetles 
and hymenopterous insects form his diet, and he seeks 
them with restless agility among the opening. buds. As 
the season progresses, and the caterpillars begin to appear, 
he forsakes the tough beetle, and rejoices in their juicy 
bodies, being almost the only bird that will eat the hairy 
and disgusting tent-caterpillar of the apple-trees. 
