THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 105 



Government examinations of 113 stomachs showed that 

 the contents were composed of 83.4: per cent, of animal 

 matter and 16.6 of vegetable matter. In May the con- 

 tents were 92 per cent, insects and in April and July 70 

 per cent. Caterpillars composed 34 per cent, of the 

 total contents and there were large numbers of beetles. 

 In the vegetable line the bird prefers fruit, cherries, ber- 

 ries and grapes, taking very little grain. 



Oriole, Orchard. — Length, six and a half inches; ex- 

 tent, eleven inches; bill, two thirds of an inch. In the 

 female the color above is a light olive; wings, dusky 

 brown, tipped with white; whole lower parts, yellow; 

 bill and legs, light lead color, the former slightly curved, 

 very sharp-pointed and black towards the extremity. 

 The young male of the first season corresponds nearly 

 with the adult female in plumage. In the succeeding 

 spring he makes his appearance with a large patch of 

 black on the throat. The plumage of the third year in 

 addition to the black throat has more or less black on the 

 tail, black spots on the head, and patches of chestnut 

 brown on the breast and rump. In the final plumage, 

 supposed to be acquired in the fourth year, the entire 

 head, fore breast and back are black, rump and rest of 

 under surface, chestnut brown; tail, black; wings, dull 

 black, edged with whitish and with a chestnut patch on 

 the shoulders. The female remains always in the yellow 

 and olive dress. 



The nest is generally found hanging from the extremity 

 of a limb of a fruit or shade tree, from ten to fiteeen feet 

 from the ground, very evenly woven and made mainly of 

 dry yellow grass, and lined with wool or some soft sub- 

 stance. The eggs are from four to six in number, four- 

 fifths by three-fifths of an inch in size, of a blue white, 

 scrawled and spotted with dark brown. 



The birds winter in Mexico and the south, from which 

 they spread themselves over the eastern United States, 



