BALTIMORE ORIOLE. FIREBIRD. 



Icterus galbula. 



Head, neck, throat and upper-back black ; lower-back, breast and 

 belly brilliant orange ; wings black, with a patch of orange on shoulders, 

 a white transverse band and some tippings and edgings of white ; tail 

 full, nearly square, with two large terminal patches of orange ; feet and 

 bill black. Length, 7.50 inches. 



Migratory. Arrives early in May, leaves about September 1 5. It builds an elaborate 

 nest, which is, says Nuttall, "a pendulous, cylindrical pouch usually suspended from near 

 the extremities of the high, drooping branches of trees such as the elm, the pear or apple 

 tree, wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip tree or button wood." 



Its popular name was given it because the black and orange of its plumage were the 

 colors forming the livery of the first Lord Baltimore. 



An abundant and beautiful bird, with a piping note, lively and agreeable in quality but 

 limited in scope. 



A pair of Baltimore Orioles have made their nest for several successive seasons in an 

 elm near the house in which the writer has passed many Summers, and it is needless to say 



