T H K B A T/r I M O R K ORIOLE. 



/(■/tries Haltiiiion-, haiuiin. 



ONE of the most beautiful and most 

 useful of our North American birds 

 is the Baltimore Oriole, a plate of which 

 forms the frontispiece of this number. 

 Its bright colors, seen flashing amid the 

 tender green of the budding leaves in spring, 

 and its clear, mellow whistle, sounded as 

 it moves along the branches of some tall 

 tree in its search for food, make it a con- 

 spicuous and beautiful feature of the love- 

 liest season of the year. Formerly the Ori- 

 ole was one of the most abundant of c^ur 

 Eastern birds, but its very beauty has led 

 to its destruction. Its brilliant plumage 

 makes it very desirable to the hat bird col- 

 lector, while its sweet notes catch his ear as 

 its colors do his eye. It is often the case 

 that all the male birds in a district are 

 exterminated within a short time after their 

 arrival from the South. 



In different localities the Oriole is known 

 by different names, such as Fire-bird, Golden 

 Robin, Fire-hang-nest, Hang-nest and Balti- 

 more-bird, or Baltimore Oriole. These 

 names refer either to its gorgeous plum- 

 age or else to its habit of building a curi- 

 ous hanging nest, which swings in the air 

 below the twig to which it is attached. 

 Orange and black were the colors of Lord 

 Baltimore, for whom the bird was named 

 by the great Swedish naturalist Linnaeus, 

 and this is the name by which it is most 

 widely known. 



The Baltimore Oriole comes to us from 

 the South in early spring. It passes the 

 winter in Mexico, Central America and 

 Cuba, and enters the United States in 

 March. Audubon tells us that in Louisiana 

 he has seen the young of the fir.st brood 

 early in May. The journey northward is 

 performed rather slowly, and usually it is 

 the 9th or loth of May before the Orioles 

 are seen in southern New York and Con- 



necticut. They are extremely regular in 

 the time of their arrival, and year after year 

 appear at any point at about the same date. 

 The male birds are the first to arrive, and 

 the females usually make their appearance 

 a day or two later. 



The first notice we have of the Balti- 

 more's presence is his sweet whistle heard 

 in the early morning. If w'e look for him 

 we shall find him high up among the 

 branches of an oak or elm or sycamore or 

 cherry tree, busily looking for food, and if 

 we take a little time to watch him, may see 

 how systematically he goes to work to se- 

 cure his breakfast. He will very likely 

 alight on some large branch near the trunk 

 of the tree, and thence work outward 

 toward the smaller branches, going care- 

 fully over almost every twig, and always 

 flying back to the main branch to begin his 

 examination of a smaller one. He peers 

 into each crevice in the bark; looks under 

 each leaf; and takes out from each blossom 

 the insects which have gathered there to 

 feed on the sweet honey. The little bunches 

 of eggs hidden last autumn in the crannies 

 and nooks where the mother beetle or moth 

 thought they would be safe, do not escape 

 his keen sight and his strong, sharp-pointed 

 bill; the caterpillar, just hatched out and 

 beginning to feed on the tender leaves, is 

 far too slow to get away if the Oriole once 

 espies him; and the insect which is about 

 to lay its eggs in the fruit which is just 

 now forming will have to be very quick and 

 cunning if it is to avoid the sharp eyes of 

 Lord Baltimore. All through the spring 

 and summer this is the Oriole's work, per- 

 formed day after day, constantly, carefully, 

 faithfully. No one can know how much 

 good he does by his unceasing warfare 

 against the insects ; no one can know how 

 many trees he saves, how many barrels of 



