BULLOCK'S ORIOLE. 487 



tribution. It is only a summer resident with us, arriving usually from its winter 

 haunts in Mexico during the last half of March, and moving slowly north- 

 ward, reaches the more northern parts of its breeding range from a month to 

 six weeks later. It appears to be much rarer in the immediate vicinity of the 

 seacoast than in the Great Basin regions, where it is common nearly everywhere, 

 especially if sufficient water is found to support a few stunted cottonwoods and 

 willows. During my extensive wanderings through nearly all of the States west 

 of the Rocky Mountains, and extending from the Mexican to the British borders, 

 I have met with this species almost everywhere in the lowlands, and in some 

 localities have found it very abundant. Like the Baltimore Oriole, it avoids 

 densely wooded regions and the higher mountains. It is especially abundant 

 in the rolling prairie country, traversed here and there by small streams having 

 their sources in some of the many minor mountain ranges which are such promi- 

 nent features of the landscape in portions of Idaho, Washington, and Oregon. 

 These streams are fringed with groves of cottonwood, mixed with birch, willow, 

 and alder bushes, which are the favorite resorts of this Oriole during the 

 breeding season. The immediate vicinity of water is, however, not considered 

 absolutely necessary, as I have found it nesting fully a mile or more away 

 from it on hillsides, the edges of table-lands, and in isolated trees or even in 

 bushes. In Colorado it is said to be found at altitudes of over 8,000 feet, but 

 as a rule it prefers much lower elevations. I also met with it at Fort Custer, 

 Montana, where, however, it was not common, and along the eastern border of 

 its range it overlaps that of the Baltimore Oriole for considerable distances. In 

 western Texas it is common and breeds as far south as the mouth of the Bio 

 Grande. It also breeds in northern Lower California and northern Mexico. In 

 southern Arizona and New Mexico I found it not uncommon, but not nearly as 

 abundant as in eastern Oregon and in Idaho, where it was present everywhere 

 in suitable localities. In the vicinity of Fort Lapwai, Idaho, it was especially 

 abundant, and, although suitable nesting sites were by no means scarce, I have 

 seen three occupied nests of this Oriole in a small birch tree close to a nest of 

 the Arkansas Flycatcher, showing them to be very sociable birds. Near Camp 

 Harney, Oregon, a Swainson's Hawk, an Arkansas Flycatcher, and a pah- of 

 this species nested in the same tree, a good-sized pine. Dr. A. K. Fisher tells 

 me that he saw hundreds of these nests in a large row of cottonwoods, east of 

 Phoenix, Arizona, in June, 1892. 



The call notes of Bullock's Oriole are very similar to those of the Baltimore, 

 but its song is neither as pleasing to the ear nor as clear and melodious as 

 that of the latter. Its food is similar, and consists principally of insects and 

 a few wild berries. Nidification begins late in May, and fresh eggs may be 

 looked for throughout the greater part of its range during the first week in June. 

 In southern California, Arizona, and southwestern Texas a few breed some- 

 times by May 15, but rarely earlier. 



The nest resembles that of the Baltimore Oriole, but as a rule it is not 

 quite as pensile, and many are more or less securely fastened by the sides as 

 well as by the rim to some of the adjoining twigs. The general make-up is 



