THE BALTIMOEB OEIOLE. 483 



n Texas, during the breeding season, it is found only in the more eastern 

 portions of the State, and appears to be rare even there, excepting in the north- 

 eastern part. It is a common summer resident in the Indian Territory and 

 Kansas, while in eastern Colorado and Montana it must be considered as rare. 

 It passes beyond our border into eastern Assiniboia, and is common in Manitoba, 

 reaching the northern limits of its range in the interior in Saskatchewan, where 

 Capt. T. BlaMston met with it in latitude 55° N. Thence to the eastward it is 

 common in Ontario, but becomes rarer toward the Atlantic coast, and is only 

 niet with in small numbers in southern New Brunswick, where it is reported to 

 breed regularly near Woodstock, on the St. John's River, and it has been taken 

 near Halifax, Nova Scotia, and also probably nests here to a limited extent. 



In northern Maine the Baltimore Oriole is rather rare. Mr. Manly Hardy, 

 of Brewer, writes under date of April 29, 1891: "We find many species of 

 birds here now which were not found thirty years ago, and others ai-e slowly 

 moving this way. I find that certain species do not advance eastward faster 

 than from 2 to 5 miles a year. The Baltimore Oriole reached here thirty-odd 

 years ago, but was found on the Kennebec River, 50 miles west, twenty-five years 

 previously, and I am certain that it was in Bangor three years before it crossed 

 the river to Brewer, and, although a regular visitor here now, I have not seen 

 it even a mile east of here as yet." 



The Baltimore Oriole is a common and well-known bird throughout our 

 Eastern, Middle, and Northern States. In the Upper Mississippi Valley it has 

 greatly increased in numbers within the last thirty years, since the country 

 has been settled, and it appears to be holding its own in the East where many 

 other species are slowly decreasing. This is undoubtedly due to its great popu- 

 larity in our rural districts, where its beneficial qualities are pretty generally 

 understood. Aside from its showy plumage, its sprightly and pleasing ways, its 

 familiarity with man, and the immense amount of good it does by the destruction 

 of many noxious insects and their larvse, including hairless caterpillars, spiders, 

 cocoons, etc., it naturally and deservedly endears itself to every true lover of the 

 beautiful in nature, and only a short-sighted churl or an ignorant fool would 

 begrudge one the few green peas and berries it may help itself to while in season. 

 It fully earns all it takes, and more too, and esnecially deserves the fullest pro- 

 tection of every agriculturist. 



The Baltimore Oriole usually arrives in the southern New England States, 

 in central New York, and Minnesota, with almost invariable regularity, about 

 May 10, rarely varying a week from this date; it arrives cori-espondingly earlier 

 or later farther south or north. About this time the trees have commenced to 

 leaf, and many of the orchards are in bloom, so that their arrival coincides 

 with the loveliest time of the year. The males usually precede the females 

 by two or three days to their breeding grounds, and the same site is frequently 

 occupied for several seasons, and not infrequently the same nest. It is very 

 much attached to a locality when once chosen for a home, and is loath to leave 

 it. Few birds are more devoted to each other than these Orioles, and I am of 

 the opinion that they remain mated through life. Their favorite haunts in our 



