BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 297 



edged with yellowish. Adult female : under parts plain canary yellow ; 

 upper parts olive green, grayish brown across back ; wings brownish, with 

 white bars and edgings. Male in second year : like adult female, but lores and 

 throat black. The rest of the black and the chestnut appear in increasingly 

 large patches till the adult plumage is reached. Young in first plumage : 

 similar to female, but lighter wing markings tipped with buff. Male : length 

 (skins) 5.80-6.50, wing 2.91-3.25, tail 2.50-2.95, bill .5Q-.69. Female: 

 length (skins) 5.90-6.30, wing 2.70-3.05, tail 2.50-2.90, bill .60-.68. 



Distribution. Breeds in Upper and Lower Sonoran zones from the east- 

 ern United States, west to the Rocky Mountains, and Texas ; migrates to 

 Cuba and South America. 



Nest. Basket-like, sometimes pensile, woven of fresh grass and placed 

 in bushes or trees usually 12 to 20 feet from the ground. Eggs : usually 4 

 to 6, bluish white, marked most heavily about the larger end with blotches 

 and scrawls of browns and purples. 



Food. Mainly small beetles, plant lice, flies, hairless caterpillars, cab- 

 bage worms, grasshoppers, rose bugs, and Iarva3. 



In the prairie states, Major Bendire says, the orchard oriole is 

 found mainly in trees and shrubbery along streams. When living in 

 orchards and gardens it makes itself most useful by destroying the 

 insects with which the fruit and vegetable grower have to contend. 



Subgenus Yphantes. 



507. Icterus galbula (Linn.). BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



Adult male in spring and summer. Under parts and hinder part of 

 back bright orange or orange red ; head, neck, and fore parts of back black ; 

 wings with yellow shoulder patch and 

 white wing bar ; tail black with 

 yellow corners. Adult male in winter : 

 like summer male, but scapulars and 

 interscapulars edged with dull orange ; 

 orange of rump and upper tail coverts 

 more or less obscured with olive ; 

 white wing edgings broader. Adult 

 female in summer : under parts orange 

 or brownish yellow, varying from 

 almost unmarked to the black color 

 pattern of male in duller, less uni- 

 form Style; upper parts yellowish From Biological Survey, U. S. l>ept. of 



olive, streaked more or less with ^T^ST 



black, if not with solid black of male ; 



rump yellowish, tail greenish yellow ; wings brownish, with whitish wing 

 bars. Adult female in winter: like summer female, but plumage softer and 

 back tinned with gray. Immature male : varying between adult male and 

 female or indistinguishable from female. Young in first fall and winter : 

 similar to adult females, which are without black on throat. Young, first 

 plumage: like lighter colored female, but upper parts grayer and under 

 parts with softe? colors. Male: length (skins fSO-7 ^ wmg ?.6(MX)2, 

 tail 2.78-3.15, bill .69-.7S. Female: length (skins) 6.20-6. <0, wing 3.35- 

 3.62, tail 2.*60-2.S3, bill .63-.71. . 



Distribution. Breeds in Transition zone of eastern North America from 

 latitude 55 in Saskatchewan to Texas, west to the Rocky Mountains; 

 migrates through eastern Mexico to Panama. 



