THE ORCHARD ORIOLE. 25 



delivered while the bird is walking about uneasily, and craning his neck to the 

 utmost to command a view of the fancied danger, accompanying the sound by 

 an emphatic flirt of wings and jerk of tail. 



On a sultry July day as I sit by the open window overlooking a large, half- 

 kept city park, I hear the shrill clarion call of a Meadow Lark. It comes to me 

 softened by distance and refined by the gentle filtration of intervening leaves, 

 but I know it for the same sound which thrilled my heart one early day last 

 March. The sun had just leaped above the horizon, and his first rays were 

 caught upon the glowing breast-plate of this high priest of morning, as he 

 mounted a commanding post and blew a golden trumpet, piercing sweet. 

 "He-ar cheer'' , he said, and those who listened felt constrained to heed the 

 summons, moving on with quickened step and clearing brow to face the duties 

 of the coming day. 



To me there is something little short of sacred in the message of this lowly 

 bird. No fitter symbol can we find of soul triumphant over matter. He lives 

 in the mud, indeed, but he does not grovel there. Sordid cares cannot bind the 

 winged spirit. He quits the ground. He lifts his voice, and lo ! he claims a 

 kinship with the Sun, the Morning and the Heart of all. And shall not all the 

 sons of cheer confess the claim ? 



No. 10. 



ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



A. O. U. No. 506. Icterus spurius (Linn.). 



Description. — Adult male: Black and chestnut; head and neck all around, 

 throat, upper back and scapulars glossy black; lesser wing coverts, lower back, 

 and remaining under parts rich chestnut; wings and tail dull black, the feathers 

 of the former edged, and of the latter sometimes tipped, with whitish; bill, 

 slender, slightly curved, black. Adult female : Above, dull olive-green, brighter 

 and more yellow on head, rump, and tail, dullest on back; below sordid yellow; 

 wings fuscous, the greater and middle coverts with whitish edging. Young 

 males: First year, like females but larger; second year, like females save for 

 a black throat-patch. Older birds show irregular traces of chestnut, and' the 

 full plumage is assumed the third season. Length about 7.00 (177.8); wing 

 3.16 (80.3); tail 3.06 (77.7); bill .63 (16.). Females smaller. 



Recognition Marks. — Sparrow size; black and chestnut coloring of adult 

 male; black throat-patch on olive-yellow ground of young male of second year; 

 female and young obscure. 



Nest, semi-pensile, or supported more or less from below, not so_ deep as 

 Baltimore's ; a marvelous tissue of interwoven grasses placed in an upright fork 

 ten or fifteen feet up, and usually in an orchard tree or willow. Bggs, 3-5, bluish 

 white with specks, spots, and scrawls of brown or sepia, and deep-seated shell 

 marks of a purpHsh cast. Av. size, .80 x .57 (20.5 x 14.5). 



