AUDUBON'S ORIOLE. 



{Icterus audubonii) 



The name oriole is from the French 

 word oriol, which is a corruption of the 

 Latm word aureolus, meaning golden. 

 Ihe name was originally appHed to a 

 vire, but is now used in a much wider 

 sense and includes a number of birds. 



The true orioles are birds of the Old 

 V/orld and are closely related to the 

 thrushes. It is said that no fewer than 

 twenty species from Asia and Africa have 

 been described. 

 ^ The orioles of America belong to a very 

 different group of birds and are related to 

 our blackbirds, the bobolink and the 

 meadowlark. All these birds belong to 

 the family Icteridae, the representatives 

 of which are confined to the New World. 

 The genus of orioles (Icterus) contains 

 about forty species, chiefly natives of 

 Central and South America. The plu- 

 mage of nearly all the species is more or 

 less colored with shades of yellow or- 

 ange and black. 



Audubon's Oriole, the male of which 

 we jlJustrate, has a very Hmited range 

 including the "valley of the Lower Rio 

 Grande in Texas and southward in Mex- 

 ico to Oaxaca." It is more common in 

 central and eastern Mexico than in anv 

 other part of its range. In the summer, 

 It only frequents the denser forests of its 

 lexas home, but during the winter 

 months it will approach the inhabited re- 

 gions. 



The Mexicans capture these Orioles 

 and offer them for sale. In captivity 

 however, they seem to lose their vivacity 

 and will not sing. "When free their us^- 

 ud song IS a prolonged and repeated 

 whistle of extraordinary mellowness and 

 sweetness, each note varying in pitch 

 from the preceding." 



It is said that this beautiful bird is fre- 

 quently called upon to become the foster 

 parents of tlve offspring of some of those 

 bn-ds tliat have neillicr tlic inclination to 



build their own nests or to raise their' 

 own families. The ingenious nests of the 

 orioles seem- to be especially attractive to 

 these tramp birds which possess para- 

 sitic tastes. 



The red-eyed cowbird (Collothrus ro- 

 bustus), of the Southern United States 

 and Central America, seems to be the pest 

 that infests the homes of Audubon's 

 ■ Oriole. It has been stated that the ma- 

 jority of the sets of eggs collected from 

 the nests of this Oriole contain one or 

 more of the cowbird's eggs. It is also 

 probable that many of the Oriole's eggs 

 are destroyed by the cowbirds as well as 

 by other agencies, and thus, though the 

 raising of two brood-s the same season is 

 frequently attempted, the species is far 

 from abundant. 



Regarding the nesting habits of the 

 Audubon's Oriole, Captain Charles Ben- 

 dare says, "The nest of this Oriole is us- 

 ually placed in mesquite trees, in thick- 

 ets and open woods, from six to fourteen 

 feet from the ground. It is a semipensile 

 structure, woven of fine, wire-like grass 

 used while still green and resembles those 

 of the hooded and orchard orioles, which 

 are much better known. The nest is firm- 

 ly attached, both on the top and sides, to 

 small branches and growing twigs and, 

 for the size of the bird, it appears" rather 

 small. One now before me measures three 

 mches in depth inside by about the same 

 in inner diameter. The rim of the nest is 

 somewhat contracted to prevent the eggs 

 from being thrown out during ln|h 

 winds. The inner lining consists of some- 

 what finer grass tops, which still retain 

 considerable strength and are even now 

 when perfectly dry, difficult to break! 

 Only a single nest of those found was 

 placed in a bunch of Spanish moss and 

 this was suspended within reach of the 

 ground ; the others were attached to small 



* 



twigs 



194 



