BALTIMORE OEIOLE. 359 



Habitat, United States East of the Eocky Mountains ; rare in Northern New England 

 and only casually in the Canadas. 



Common summer resident. The Orchard Oriole arrives usually a few 

 days later than the following species, and is less generally distributed 

 and less common. Its favorite resorts are the low banks of sparsely 

 wooded streams and willow thickets, and though frequently found in 

 orchards and gardens, does not, in this vicinity, exhibit the preference 

 which its common name implies. 



In this vicinity the Orchard Oriole builds a nest, which for compact- 

 ness, neatness, care in the selection of materials, and adaptation to con- 

 cealment and the safety of the young, is unexcelled even by the noted 

 Baltimore Hangnest. The nest is composed entirely of long green blades 

 of strong marsh grass, woven compactly together to form a deep purse 

 or cup, only slightly contracted at the rim and nearly twice as deep as 

 wide, and with or without a scant lining of vegetable down. It is 

 attached by the rim, and sometimes by the sides, to slender twigs of wil- 

 low trees, where its color, which becomes by bleaching a uniform light 

 straw, renders it very difficult to discover. The eggs are usually four 

 in number, pale bluish, marked with dots and zig-zig lines of light 

 and dark brown. 



IcTBEus BALTiMOBE (L.) Daudin. 



Baltimore Oriole. 



Icterus baliimore, Kirtland, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 162. — Ebad, Fam. Visitor, 

 iii, 1653, 311; Proo. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vi, 1853, 395; Whbaton, Ohio Agri. 

 Eep. for 1860, 366 ; Eeprint, 1861, 8; Food of Birds, etc., Ohio Agric. Eep. for 1874, 

 567; Eeprint, 1875, 7.— Langdon, Cat. Birds of Cin., 1877, 10; Eevised List, Journ. 

 Cin. Soo. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 176 ; Eeprint, 10.— Jones and Shultz, Illustrations of 

 Nests and Eggs of Ohio Birds, Part 1, 1879, Plate 1. 



Oriolus Baltimore, LiNNiEUS, Syst. Nat., i, 1766, 162. 



Icterus baliimore, Daudin, Trans. Orn., ii, 348. 



Male with the head and neck all ronnd, and the back, black ; rump, upper tail coverts, 

 lesser wing coverts, most of the tail feathsrs, and all the under parts from the tiiroat, 

 fiery orange, but of varying intensity according to age and season. Middle tail feathers 

 black, the middle and greater coverts and inner quills, more or less edged and tipped 

 with white, but the white on the coverts not forming a continous patch ; bill and feet 

 bine black. Length 7^-8 ; tail 3. Female smaller, and much paler, the black obscured 

 by olive, sometimes entirely wanting. The young entirely without the black on throat 

 and head, othewise colored nearly like the female. 



Habitat, United States, west to the Eocky Mountains. North regularly to the British 

 Provinces. Breeds chiefly toward the northern portions of its range, but generally dis- 

 persed in summer over the United States. 



Abundant summer resident from the latter part of April to September. 

 Breeds. Found everywhere, and everywhere well-known by the bril- 



