240 THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



O, these days of life and song ! they are but too short 

 and fleeting ! I go into my study, in the early morning, 

 and sit by the open window which overlooks the village 



THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



nestling among the trees. What a delicious fragrance floats 

 on the breeze ! What can be more suggestive of Paradise 

 than this delightful chorus of birds, and this budding and 

 blooming of spring? 



Ah! my old favorite, the Baltimore Oriole (Icterus balti- 

 more), has arrived during the night. I hear his loud, sweet 

 whistle in the large elm just across the way. Now he has 

 passed directly before the window, and lit in full view in 

 the orchard. He is well worthy of the epithet " Golden " in 

 his old familiar name, Golden Robin, only he is no Robin at 

 all; and if Lord Baltimore, for whom he is named, could have 

 equaled his brilliancy in the colors of his coat-of-arms, he was 

 a gay fellow to lead a persecuted people into the wilderness. 

 Most appropriate of all, I think, is this bird's Indian name, 

 " Fire-bird." Appearing to the best advantage as he flies 

 from you, does not that rump of bright orange, surrounded 

 by the jet-black of his head, shoulders, wings and tail, glow 

 like a burning coal? And, as he spreads his tail in lighting, 



