only where there is a plenty of sun- 

 shine ! 



O happy life, to soar and sway 



Above the life by mortals led, 

 Singing the merry months away. 



Master, not slave of daily bread. 

 And, when the Autumn comes, to flee 



Wherever sunshine beckons thee. 



While the Baltimore Orioles beautify 

 our home environment and entrance us 

 with their song — music which seems to 

 spring from "a gay and joyous heart" — 

 much more can be said in their favor. 

 While we know that these birds have 

 excited the enmity of fruit-growers be- 

 cause of their fondness for grapes and 

 other small fruits, often injuring, ac- 

 cording to reports, more than they need 

 for food, they should not be judged 

 too harshly, for they perform a work of 

 special importance to us. Mr. F. H. 

 King, who has made a careful study of 

 the economic relations of birds, says that 

 the Orioles feed extensively upon leaf- 

 rollers in the larval state. "These are 

 a large and destructive group of moths. 

 They infest nearly all our fruit trees, 

 our strawberries and cranberries, as well 

 as many of the trees of the forest. 

 Those which do not infest the fruit pro- 

 tect themselves either by folding one 

 side of a leaf over them, or by tying a 

 number of leaves securely together, thus 

 forming a strong house in which they 

 feel secure, I fear, from the majority of 

 birds. But the Oriole has learned their 

 habits, and, with its strong bill, is able 

 to demolish their houses and devour the 

 inmates." Mr. King also says : 'T have 

 seen a whole family of these birds 

 working together in a grove devouring 

 leaf-rollers, and making such a noise as 

 to lead me to suspect at first that some 

 large animal was stripping the leaves 

 from the trees." It is also said that the 

 Orioles will break open the tender green 

 pods of peas in order to feed upon the 

 succulent seeds within, but it has been 

 shown that they will feed upon the pea- 

 weevil, and that they will open the pod 

 in order to feed upon the grub in the 

 young peas. It is also known that they 

 will eat hairy caterpillars, so disliked by 

 many other insect-eating birds, as well 

 as the smooth ones, and they also enjov 

 a meal of tent-caterpillars, whose web- 



like abodes are so conspicuous in our 

 fruit trees. These caterpillars are not 

 only defoliators, but early in the spring, 

 when they are hatched, they feed upon 

 the young opening buds. We can well 

 spare to these birds the small amount 

 of fruit that they may wish, in return 

 for the insect pests which they destroy. 

 The wonderful hanging nests of the 

 Baltimore Oriole are built in trees 

 usually near the habitations of man. 

 Lady Oriole, for it is she that builds, 

 shows great architectural skill both in 

 the selection of materials and in the 

 construction of the nest. She learns, 

 too, by experience, and her nests of later 

 years show a much higher grade of 

 workmanship than do those of her 

 younger days. Either because of 

 greater safety from the foes of birds, or 

 because the Orioles love to be rocked 

 by the gentle breezes, they usually hang 

 their nests high above the ground and 

 at the remote end of a drooping branch. 

 It is this habit that has given them the 

 name Hangbird. While they will build 

 in nearly all kinds of trees and often in 

 the willows bordering streams, they 

 seem to prefer the elm, especially the 

 large elm trees of roadsides and door- 

 yards. The nest must *be seen to fully 

 appreciate the skill and genius of its 

 builder. In its construction, various 

 materials are used. Vegetable fibers, 

 fine grasses, wool, strings, downy seeds, 

 hairs, feathers and strips of cloth are 

 the more common substances which are 

 woven together to form the w^alls of 

 these pouch or bag-like nests, which are 

 securely fastened to the twigs. Before 

 the people of the Old World settled in 

 the wilds of this continent, the Orioles 

 must have depended upon vegetable 

 fibers, wool, hairs and feathers for their 

 constructive materials. Then, as well as 

 now, the words of Lowell's verse would 

 fittingly describe the habits of these 

 birds : 



Then from the honeysuckle gray 

 The Oriole wath experienced quest. 



Twitches the fibrous bark away. 

 The cordage of his hammock nest. 



Cheering his labor with a note 



Rich as the orange of his throat. 



The poet Lowell seems to have used 

 the pronoun his in a general sense, for 



29 



