BALTIMORE ORIOLE. FIREBIRD. 
Icterus galbula. 
Head, neck, throat and upper-back black ; lower-back, breast and 
belly brilliant orange ; wings black, with a patch of orange on shoulders, 
a white transverse band and some tippings and edgings of white ; tail 
full, nearly square, with two large terminal patches of orange; feet and 
bill black. Length, 7.50 inches. 
Migratory. Arrives early in May, leaves about September 15. It builds an elaborate 
nest, which is, says Nuttall, **a pendulous, cylindrical pouch usually suspended from near 
the extremities of the high, drooping branches cf trees such as the elm, the pear or apple 
tree, wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip tree or buttonwood.” 
its popular name was given it because the black and orange of its plumage were the 
colors forming the livery of the first Lord Baltimore. 
An abundant and beautiful bird, with a piping note, lively and agreeable in quality but 
limited in scope. 
A pair of Baltimore Orioles have made their nest for several successive seasons in an 
elm near the house in which the writer has passed many Summers, and it is needless to say 
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