YELLOW OR ORANGE CONSPICUOUS 515 



Adult Female : Upper parts olive-green, yellow on rump and onter tail- 

 feathers ; two white wing-bars ; under parts greenish yellow. 



Young : Similar to adult female, but under parts less yellow, and breast 

 brownish ; wing-bar yellow, and all wing-feathers tipped with white ; 

 tail tipped with yellow. 



Geographical Distribution : Western Texas to California, and from south- 

 ern parts of Utah and Nevada south to Lower California. 



California Breeding Range: In desert regions southeast of the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



Breeding Season : May to June 15. 



Nest : A pouch-shaped affair ; woven of string, grass, and yucca fibre ; 

 hung under yucca leaves or in other low trees. 



Eggs: 2 to 4 ; light blue, marked with brown and gray. Size 0.96 X 

 0.68. 



Where the tree yuccas grow, the Scott Oriole makes 

 his home. His brilliant lemon and black plumage and 

 merry song are a welcome bit of life in the arid desert 

 regions of Southeastern California. There, in the cool 

 of the morning, or when the intense Tieat of noonday 

 beats down from the cloudless sky and up from blister- 

 ing sand, and all the other birds are still, he pipes his 

 clear, sweet roundelay. Even when worn with the cares 

 of a family of two he sings — less often perhaps and less 

 rapturously than when the spring called him to woo his 

 mate, but still with a bubbling overflow of joy. A little 

 way up the valley is his nest, swung under the sword- 

 like leaves of the yucca and securely fastened with its 

 coarse, thread-like fibre. Here, concealed by the dead 

 leaves, the mother bird sits all day long for two weeks, 

 and keeps the eggs warm, often singing softly to herself 

 the same sweet lullaby. Her devoted mate feeds her 

 and stands guard on a near-by tree, but I have never 

 seen him attempt to get into the nest to take her place 

 when she is absent. He will peer into it with ludicrous 



