ORCHARD ORIOLE. 285 



* 



Genus ICTERUS Brisson. 



ICTERUS SPURIUS (Lixn.). 

 206. Orchard Oriole. (oOG) 



Male. : — Black ; lower back, lunip, lesser wing coverts, and all under parts 

 from the throat, deep chestnut ; a whitish bar aci-oss the tips of greatei' wing 

 coverts ; bill and feet, blue-black ; tail, graduated. Length, about 7 ; wing, 3^ ; 

 tail, 3. Female : — Smaller, plain yellowish-olive above, yellowish below ; 

 wings, dusky ; tips of the coverts and edges of the inner quills, whitish ; known 

 from the female of the other species l>y its smaller size and very slender bill. 

 Yoiiiuj male: — At first like the /e//;a./e, afterwards showing confused characters 

 of both sexes ; in a pai'ticular stage it has a black mask and throat. 



Hab. — United States, west to the Plains, south, in winter, to Panama. 



Nest, pensile, composed of grass and other stringy materials ingeniously 

 woven together and lined with wool or plant ilown, rather less in size and not 

 quite so deep in proportion to its width as that of the Baltimore. 



Eggs, four to six, bluish-white, spotted and veined with lirown. 



On the 15th of May, 1865, I shot an imniatiu'e male of this species 

 in an orchard at Hamilton Beach, which was the first i-ecord for 

 Ontario. I did not see or hear of it again till the summer of 1SS3, 

 when they were observed breeding at different points around the 

 city of Hamilton, but since that year they have not appeared near 

 this place. 



Mr. Saunders informs me that they breed i-egularly and in consid- 

 erable numbers near London and west of that city, from which we 

 infer that the species enters Ontario around the west end of Lake 

 Erie, and does not come as far east as Hamilton. Most likelv it 

 does not at present extend its migrations in Ontai'io \erv far from 

 the Lake Erie shore. The notes of the male are loud, clear and 

 delivered with great energy, as he sits perched on the bough of an 

 apple tree, or sails from one tree in the orchard to another. This 

 species would be a desiral^le acquisition to our garden lairds, })oth on 

 account of his pleasing plumage of black and brown, and because of 

 the havoc he makes among the insect pests which frequent oui" 

 fruit trees. 



I learn from Dr. Macallum that the Orchard Oriole breeds regu- 

 larly in small numbers along the north shore of Lake Erie, near 

 Dunnville, but it evidently does not proceed far north of our southern 

 l)oundary. One wanderer, but only one, is reported by Dr. Coues as 

 having appeared at Pemliina. 



