256 AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



THE ORIOLE FOSTER-PARENTS. 



About my next door neighbor's house and mine are numerous Nor- 

 way spruces. These trees are tenanted by different birds at different 

 seasons. 



During the cold winter the bluejays hold full sway, there being no 

 other houseseekers but the English sparrows which soon seek other 

 sites. 



At this season the jay is more welcome, perhaps, than at any other. 

 We like to see its blue and white plumage against the green of the tree, 

 and to hear its shrill call. No day seems too cold for this pert-looking 

 visitor to be out and ridding the trees of unwelcome pests, the eggs 

 and larvae of insects. 



Suddenly, some afternoon, just as the spring is approaching, we 

 hear a commotion in the trees. We know the grackles have come! 

 Yes, there they are. They have come in large flocks. How delighted 

 they seem to be. Such tilting, swaying and balancing! Such chatter- 

 ing! Later as the season advances come the warblers and many others. 



One day, during the first week in July, a member of our family 

 picked up a young bird that had evidently fallen from its nest. He 

 carried the bird home, a distance of about two miles. I recognized it 

 as a young Baltimore Oriole. We put it into a bird cage upon some 

 dry grass, and dropped tiny bits of bread, fruit, insects and worms into 

 its mouth when it opened it, as it did nearly every time we approached 

 the cage. 



During the second day of its enforced visit we placed the cage upon 

 the walk near a flower bed. We sat near enough to see but not to be 

 seen, on a porch and watched it. Occasionally it gave a few short 

 "peeps" which gradually grew more sharp. Like a flash of flame 

 came an adult Baltimore Oriole from the spruces! It hovered about, 

 then lit on a low brancli of a Balm of Gilead, then darted off. In a few 

 moments it appeared again only to fly away once more. Soon it flew 

 back with a worm in its bill. It flew to a twig then to the ground near 

 the cage. It hopped up to the cage, flew to the top of it, held the 

 worm down between the wires and fed the little one. Then it darted 

 back to the spruces. The little one was all a-flutter. Again the oriole 

 appeared to feed the little one and fly away. Soon came another old 

 oriole. They kept coming, alternately, for two hours or more. Once 

 one of them flew in at the open door fed the bird and flew away. At 

 sundown they ceased to come. Our little bird put its head under its 

 wing, apparently to go to sleep. We took the cage into the house for 

 the night. Sometime before morning it died. The old birds did not 

 come back again to the garden. Catherine c.kelley. 



