244 THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



sparsely but irregularly scratched in every direction, as if 

 with a pen, in both light and heavy strokes with black or dark 

 brown; some of these marks being obscure, as if partially 

 washed off. *As generally with birds of its size, incubation 

 occupies some two weeks. The young resemble the female, 

 but Audubon thinks that the young males acquire their 

 bright colors the first year. 



The Baltimore Oriole is a great devourer of insects; but 

 like other birds of that kind of diet, he will occasionally 

 affect a change. Once, after a spring shower, when the 

 peach-trees were in bloom, a beautiful male lit in one just 

 against a window. All unconscious of my presence, though 

 I was scarcely more than two feet from him, he began mov- 

 ing up and down the limbs in that gliding, athletic manner 

 peculiar to himself, ever and anon inserting his bill into the 

 cup-like calyx of the blossoms. Could he be drinking the 

 new-fallen rain-drops? Scarcely; for he did not raise his 

 head to swallow. Looking a little more closely, I saw that 

 he was eating the stamens. Let not the fruit-grower 

 be alarmed, however, for nature has provided many 

 more blossoms than is necessary for a good crop. It may 

 be that the Baltimore is simply thinning them to advan- 

 tage. 



With us, as in many other parts of our country, this is one 

 of the most numerous and well-known of all' the birds; 

 while his brilliancy, his loud and happy notes, and his 

 abundant appearance in shade trees, orchards, fields, forests, 

 and even in the heart of our great cities at the same time, 

 fully make known the morning of his arrival. Wintering 

 in Mexico, Central America, Cuba, etc., he breeds nearly 

 throughout the Eastern United States, and, becoming rare 

 in Northern New England, barely extends into the British 

 Provinces. He belongs, therefore, to the Alleghanian Fauna. 



