THE ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



{Icterus spurius.) 



The beautiful and sweet-voiced 

 Orchard Oriole possesses only the good 

 attributes of bird life. All its habits 

 are above reproach. The male is bright 

 and active at all times ; has a won- 

 derfully pleasing song and more than 

 all, he with his mate, are among the 

 best of our bird friends. They indus- 

 triously search our orchards and gar- 

 dens for insects, destroying enormous 

 numbers of many species among those 

 which are the most harmful to plant 

 life. While this bird makes its home 

 in the quiet shade of fence rows or in 

 the trees that line the banks of streams, 

 it is well named the Orchard Oriole, 

 for it loves the orchard and there, as a 

 rule, it builds its home and raises its 

 young. While the male is always rest- 

 less and seems hurried, his mate is shyer 

 and has a more retiring disposition. 

 She spends her time quietly attending 

 to the duties of her home. In spite of 

 his love of song and his hurried nerv- 

 ous ways, he is an excellent helpmeet 

 and is constantly hunting for choice 

 insect tidbits for his family. He is a 

 good bird husband; she is a good bird 

 wife; and both are the best of parents. 



The nest of this Oriole is a beautiful, 

 interesting piece of bird architecture. 

 As a nesting site this species is, fortu- 

 nately for the fruit culturist, very par- 

 tial to fruit trees, especially the apple. 

 There is no better description of these 

 ingenious homes than that of Mr. Daw- 

 son, whose words we quote : ''Green 

 grass blades of the tougher sorts are 

 twisted and wrapped and interwoven 

 with the skill of a lace-maker, until a 

 pouch some three inches wide by four 

 inches deep is formed. This is made 

 fast by the brim to the spreading forks 

 near the tip of some horizontal apple- 

 limb, somewhat after the fashion of 

 the vireo's ; or else, and more commonlv, 



it is slung between two or three spread- 

 ing upright forks. In the latter case 

 it is tightly lashed, for its entire depth, 

 to two or more of the ascending 

 branches, thus more closely assimilating 

 certain types of the redwing's nests." 

 Frequently the wall of the nest is so 

 thin that the eggs or young may be 

 seen through it, yet it is so firmly woven 

 that the nest is very durable. So well 

 does the bird weave, that the ornitholog- 

 ist Wilson found that a blade of grass 

 thirteen inches in length, which he had 

 taken from a nest, had been passed 

 through and returned no less than four 

 times. Mr. Wilson also says : "An old 

 lady of my acquaintance, to whom I was 

 one day showing this curious fabrication, 

 after admiring its texture for sometime, 

 asked me, in a tone between a joke 

 and earnest, whether I did not think 

 it possible to teach these birds to darn 

 stockings." 



The Orchard Orioles breed through- 

 out their range within the United States, 

 nesting from the Gulf of Mexico north- 

 ward nearly to the British Possessions 

 and east of the Great Plains. In the 

 northern portion of their range, the 

 nests are quite well lined with wool, 

 feathers, vegetable down, or other soft 

 materials. 



The song season of the Orchard 

 Oriole is all too short, for it draws to a 

 close early in July. ]\Ir. Burroughs 

 speaks of its sweet song as ''strong, in- 

 tense and emphatic." It is the song of 

 an energetic spirit, and while it may 

 lack the richness of the Baltimore's 

 song "We are charmed with the rapidly 

 enunciated arias" and the piquancy with 

 which the notes are uttered. This song 

 would seem to be the unrestrained ex- 

 pression of perfect satisfaction and hap- 

 piness. The Orchard Oriole sings as 

 he flies, and while he is searching for 



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