188 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



Baltimore Oriole. Icterus galbula 



7.53 



■Ad. $. — Head, throat, upper back, wings, and tail black; 

 wing-feathers margined with white ; tips of outer tail-feathers 

 yellow for nearly half their length ; lower back, breast, and belly, 

 reddish-orange. Ad. J. — Black of the male much duller; rump, 

 breast, and belly yellow ; throat often spotted with blackish ; tail 

 grayish-orange. Im. — Similar to the 5 . 



Nest, a pocket composed of tough fibres or string, hung from 

 the tips of pendulous twigs, commonly of elms, or sometimes 

 close to the upright stem of small trees. Eggs, white, scrawled 

 with irregular lines of brown or black. 



The Baltimore Oriole is a common summer resident of 

 southern and central New England, and the lower Hudson 

 Valley. In the upland of northern New England and New 

 York, the Oriole is confined to the village streets in the 

 more settled valleys ; in the forested region of the north 

 it is wholly absent. It arrives early in May, and stays till 

 about the first of September. 



All through May and early June Orioles are active and 

 musical, flashing through the trees and whistling, now a 

 single note, now a phrase or two. By the middle of June 

 the young begin to call from their hanging nest, and their 

 crying is then incessant, and resembles the syllables tee'-dee- 

 dee, tee'-dee-dee. Some time in July the old Orioles moult, 

 and are then quiet and retiring; after the moult the male 

 whistles again, especially early in the morning, and con- 

 tinues to sing till his departure. The female during the 

 mating season whistles two or three notes similar to the 

 male's. Both sexes utter a long chatter when excited. The 

 question is often asked whether the Oriole ever uses the 

 same nest a second season. I have never observed such an 

 instance, but it is a very common sight to see a new nest 

 built only a few feet from the old one, or sometimes even 

 the tattered remains of the nest of two years before on 

 still a third twig. 



