Balttmore oriole. 45 



After the hammock part of the nest has been completed, my lady 

 of Baltimore arranges at tlio bottom a soft cushion of plant down 

 or hair, and on this deposits hur eggs, tlie number varying from 

 four to six. These eggs are long and narrow, measuring about an 

 inch in length and something over a half inch in breadth, and are 

 of a dull white tint, irregularly blotched and streaked, and dotted 

 with several shades of brown. 



The Baltimore oriole usually selects for a nesting site a grove 

 near a farm house, though a tree in a vill.age street or in a city 

 appears to suit him equally well. For several years I have seen 

 orioles' nests in the yard of Harvai-d University, at Cambridge, and 

 one pair built in an isolated tree that stood no more than fifty feet 

 from the dormitory in which I lodged. In the hottest weather the 

 old and young retire from the open districts and are not seen in the 

 parks or gardens until late in August, when they return and again 

 make the groves resound with their rich, rolling notes. The scmg 

 of the " goldeu robin," as the bird is called by the people, is 

 attractive in its way, but the attraction centres cliiefly on its clear, 

 strong, rolling tones, for the melody lacks variation ; is, in fact, a 

 rather monotonous though cheery whistle, much too simple to 

 entitle it to high rank among our woodland melodies. 



The food of these birds is almost entirely insectivorous — soft 

 caterpillars, small beetles and flies — though they are said to vary 

 their diet with small fruit in season, and the market gardeners 

 accuse them of being much too fond of young peas. 



The first oriole I saw was tending its young in a nest that swung 

 above a throng of brave men and maidens fair in that famous resort 

 for such folk — the beautiful public garden of Halifax. But these 

 birds are not common in Nova Scotia, nor in any of the Maritime 

 Provinces, though a few pairs breed every year in the Annapolis 

 Valley and amid the settled districts of the Upper St. John, 

 between Fredericton and Grand Falls. We must go to Montreal 

 or to Ottawa, or through Southern Ontario, before we can be cer- 

 tain of hearing the song. 



With the chilling nights of late September the orioles move 

 southward to find a more congenial winter resort. 



