THE ORCHARD ORIOLE. 25 
delivered while the bird is walking about uneasily, and craning his neck to the 
utmost to command a view of the fancied danger, accompanying the sound by 
an emphatic flirt of wings and jerk of tail. 
Ona sultry July day as I sit by the open window overlooking a large, half- 
kept city park, I hear the shrill clarion call of a Meadow Lark. It comes to me 
softened by distance and refined by the gentle filtration of intervening leaves, 
but I know it for the same sound which thrilled my heart one early day last 
March. The sun had just leaped above the horizon, and his first rays were 
caught upon the glowing breast-plate of this high priest of morning, as he 
mounted a commanding post and blew a golden trumpet, piercing sweet. 
“He-ar cheer’, he said, and those who listened felt constrained to heed the 
summons, moving on with quickened step and clearing brow to face the duties 
of the coming day. 
To me there is something little short of sacred in the message of this lowly 
bird. No fitter symbol can we find of soul triumphant over matter. He lives 
in the mud, indeed, but he does not grovel there. Sordid cares cannot bind the 
winged spirit. He quits the ground. He lifts his voice, and lo! he claims a 
kinship with the Sun, the Morning and the Heart of all. And shall not all the 
sons of cheer confess the claim? 
No. 10. 
ORCHARD ORIOLE. 
A. O. U. No. 506. Icterus spurius (Linn.). 
Description.—Adult male: Black and chestnut; head and neck all around, 
throat, upper back and scapulars glossy black; lesser wing coverts, lower back, 
and remaining under parts rich chestnut; wings and tail dull black, the feathers 
of the former edged, and of the latter sometimes tipped, with whitish; bill, 
slender, slightly curved, black. Adult female: Above, dull olive-green, brighter 
and more yellow on head, rump, and tail, dullest on back; below sordid yellow; 
wings fuscous, the greater and middle coverts with whitish edging. Young 
males: First year, like females but larger; second year, like females save for 
a black throat-patch. Older birds show irregular traces of chestnut, and the 
full plumage is assumed the third season. Length about 7.00 (177.8); wing 
3.16 (80.3) ; tail 3.06 (77.7); bill .63 (16.). Females smaller. 
Recognition Marks.—Sparrow size; black and chestnut coloring of adult 
male; black throat-patch on olive-yellow ground of young male of second year; 
female and young obscure. 
Nest, semi-pensile, or supported more or less from below, not so deep as 
Baltimore’s; a marvelous tissue of interwoven grasses placed in an upright fork 
ten or fifteen feet up, and usually in an orchard tree or willow. Eggs, 3-5, bluish 
white with specks, spots, and scrawls of brown or sepia, and deep-seated shell 
marks of a purplish cast. Av. size, .80 x .57 (20.5 x 14.5). 
