480 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Its favorite haunts, as its name implies, are orchards, and when the apple 

 and pear trees are in bloom and the trees have commenced to leaf one may look 

 for the Orchard Oriole. It is generally found in rather open country, inter- 

 spersed here and there with small groves; also among the shade trees along 

 country roads, and in the prairie States among the trees and shrubbery along 

 streams, preferring such localities to heavier-timbered sections and forest regions. 



Its song, most often heard in the earlier spring, is uttered in a quick, hurried 

 manner. Its loud, clear strains, indicating its impulsive nature, are poured forth 

 with such rapidity as to be difficult to describe, and I shall not attempt it; but 

 they remind me somewhat of those of the Warbling Vireo, only sounding louder 

 and clearer. A chattering, querulous note, when disturbed or alarmed from any 

 cause, is also uttered. 



Few birds do more good and less harm than our Orchard Oriole, especially 

 to the fruit grower. The bulk of its food consists of small beetles, plant lice, 

 flies, hairless caterpillars, cabbage worms, grasshoppers, rose bugs, and larvae of 

 all kinds, while the few berries it may help itself to during the short time they 

 last are many times paid for by the great number of noxious insects destroyed, 

 and it certainly deserves the fullest protection. 



Excepting in the extreme southern parts of its range nest building does 

 not begin much before May 10, and even there it is often protracted till after 

 the middle of the month. In southern New York, Pennsylvania, southern 

 Michigan, and Minnesota full sets of fresh eggs may ordinarily be looked for 

 from May 25 to June 10, while on the lower Rio Grande, in Texas, fresh sets 

 are occasionally taken during the first week in May, but more frequently not 

 until about the middle of this month. Both sexes assist in nest building, and 

 generally finish one in from three to four days. The nests are placed in trees 

 or bushes, from 6 to 40 feet from the ground, usually from 12 to 20 feet, in a 

 great variety of trees, less often in conifers than in deciduous kinds. Apple, 

 pear, sweet gum, different kinds of oaks, sycamore, elm, cottonwood, maple, 

 walnut, mesquite, hackberry, prickly ash, cedar, and pine are a few of the many 

 selected as nesting sites. In the South the Orchard Oriole nests occasionally in 

 the gray moss (Tillanclsia usneoides) so commonly found hanging from many of 

 the trees there. The late Dr. William C. Avery, of Greensboro, Alabama, sent 

 me a beautiful nest of this species, built in a bunch of such moss, pending from 

 a post oak, about 25 feet from the ground, and taken on May 27, 1891. A suit- 

 able cavity was fashioned in the moss, and this is well lined with the wiry green 

 grass which is nearly always used by the Orchard Oriole in the construction of 

 its nests. The inside is sparingly lined with plant down. To what extent this 

 mode of building prevails I am unable to tell, but I believe it is rather unusual, 

 even in localities where this moss is abundant. 



The location and manner of attaching its ingeniously woven, basket-like 

 nests vary greatly. Some are set in a crotch formed by several small twigs ; the 

 bottom of the nest occasionally rests on and is supported by these, and again 

 in similar locations it is unsupported, but the sides are securely fastened to 

 several of the twigs among which it is placed; then again some are built in a 



