THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



251 



danger, it often baffles the skill even of the practised fowler, who is forced to trust to the 

 careful imitation of its note for his hope of getting within shot of this cunning biixl. More- 

 over, the imitation must be exceedingly exact, for the ear of the Golden Oriole is wonderfully 

 true and delicate, and if the bird detects the least error in the intonation, it takes instant 

 alarm, and seeks refuge in the deepest recesses of the forest. According to M. Bechstein, the 

 Golden Oriole is so fearful of exposing itself, that it never perches upon a naked branch, 

 always prefening those boughs which are most thickly covered with foliage, and which will 

 consequently afford it the best shelter. 



The food of the Golden Oriole consists chiefly of insects ; and as the bird is rather a 

 voracious one, it is very serviceable in clearing away the caterpillars and other fruit-devouring 

 creatures which are specially rife in the spring, and destroy so much fruit in its earliest stages. 

 As is often the case with the insect-eating birds, the Golden Oriole has a great taste for fruit 

 when it is quite ripe, and in the autumn is very fond of the best and mellowest fruits, having 

 an especial predilection for cherries, figs, and grapes. Perhaps it may be able to detect the 



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\ '■Mm'' fk/ 



GOiJ>EN oi.ilOLE.— 0)wtus gallmla. 



larva of some insect within the fruit, and to do good service by destroying it before it has 

 come to maturity. 



The nest of this bird is a very elegantly formed and well-constructed edifice, of a shallow 

 cup-like shape, and usually placed in a horizontal fork of a convenient brancli. The materials 

 of which it is made are mostly delicate grass-stems interwoven ■with wool so firmly that the 

 whole structure is strong and warm. The eggs are generally four or five in number, and their 

 color is purplish-white, sparely marked with blotches of a deep red and ashen-gray. It is 

 believed that there is but one brood in the year, so that the species does not multiply very 

 rapidly. Sometimes the bird is said to build a deep and purse-like nest, which is suspended 

 from the forked branch instead of being placed upon it. 



This species has a very peculiar note, loud, flute-like, and of a singularly articulate char- 

 acter, as may be supposed from the fact already mentioned, that the Italian peasantry believe 

 it to speak their language. Bechstein considers the note to resemble the word " puhlo," and 

 many writers think that the different names of Oriole, Turiole, Loriot, Pirol, and BiOow are 

 given to the creature in imitation of its cry. 



