CHAPTER XIV. 



THE ORIOLES, BLACKBIRDS. CROWS, AND JAYS. 



NEXT to the scarlet tanager the BALTIMORE ORIOLE is the 

 most brilliant of our northern birds. It seems a messenger 

 from the tropics when it arrives in May, flashing from grove 

 to orchard in its bright-lined suit and filling the air with the 

 rich melody of its song : this impression is strengthened later 

 when it builds its pendent nest, so different in architecture 

 from that of any of the rest of our birds. It chooses to live 



THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 

 (After Biological Survey.) 



in orchards or groves near the abode of man ; it is strictly 

 migratory and is found throughout most of the States east of 

 the Rocky Mountains. From the point of view of the econo- 

 mist it sometimes commits depredations on the pea-pods in 

 the garden, the cherries in the orchard, and the grapes in the 

 vineyard ; but these attacks are rare and are more than paid 

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