CHAPTER III 



' r n . '' ' , - ' .:-'-. 7 " -r "",.' * 



Gold Birds: Icterus Galbula 



IN THE TREE-TOPS 



MY FRIENDSHIP with 

 Orioles became intimate 

 when I went one morning 

 to carry a bit of sewing to 

 a neighbour and found 

 two starving, half-naked 

 little birds, gasping for 

 breath, in full sunlight, on 

 the board floor of a wire 

 cage. To test his aim, 

 with his rifle, the woman's 

 husband- had severed the 

 small twigs, high in the 

 air, from which the nest 

 depended; both of them 

 seemed very proud of the 

 performance. In falling 

 two of the birds were 

 killed; the man carried 

 home the nest to show 

 what a "pretty shot," he 

 had made, so as the wo- 

 man had the old canary cage, she thought she might raise the two 



43 



FEMALE FEEI 



