BLACKBIRDS, LARKS AND ORIOLES 
201 
gions. Throughout the year, insects make up 
73 per cent of its food, grain, 5 per cent, and 
weed-seeds, 12 per cent. During the insect sea- 
son, insects constitute over 90 per cent of this 
bird’s food supply. As a destroyer of insects 
and weeds, this bird is entitled to the most per- 
fect protection that laws and public sentiment 
combined can afford. 
In Montana, the Western Meadow-Lark 1 
quite wearied me by the tiresome iteration, day 
after day, of its one short, seven-word song. This 
was it: 
As our “outfit” pulled over the smoothly 
shaven Missouri-Yellowstone divide, in the 
month of May, I think we heard that song re- 
peated a thousand times, or less; and when 
the wind blew hard for five long days without in- 
termission, even that cheerful welcome at last 
became irritating. 
The eastern Meadow-Lark inhabits the east- 
ern half of the United States, and the western 
species begins at the western edge of Iowa and 
Missouri ; but neither of them belongs to the Lark 
Family ! 
The Baltimore Oriole , 2 or Hang-Nest, has 
beautiful plumage of orange and black, a very 
pleasing song, good habits, and therefore is one 
of our feathered favorites. Either when perch- 
ing or on the wing, it is a very graceful bird. It 
is the most skilful builder in North America, 
and constructs a strong and durable hanging 
nest which is a marvel of intelligent and skilful 
effort. The Oriole does not believe in having 
boys make collections of Oriole eggs. The out- 
ermost branches of a very tall and very drooping 
elm are particularly suited to its views of an ideal 
building site. 
The nest of this Oriole is bound to create in 
the mind of any one who examines it attentively 
a high degree of admiration for the mental ca- 
pacity of its builder. Its superstructure is com- 
posed very largely of long, spring-like horse- 
hairs, so tightly woven together that even when 
the end of a hair waves freely in the air, it is im- 
1 Sturnella neglecta. Average length, about 9.50 
inches. 
2 Ic'te-rus gal-bu’la. Length, 8 inches. 
possible to pull it out. Here is genuine weaving, 
done with hair and fibrous fragments of soft, 
weathered bark. Let it be remembered at this 
point that not even the higher apes know how to 
weave a nest or a roof. 
The mouth of the Oriole’s bag-like nest is thin 
but strong, and terminates in an edge as thin 
and firm as hair-cloth. A nest now before me is 
BALTIMORE ORIOLE AND NEST. 
five inches long, four inches in outside diameter 
at a point half-way between bottom and top, 
and its opening is two inches in diameter. For 
a space of two inches, the horse-hairs of the upper 
margin are wrapped around an elm-twig the size 
of a slate-pencil. At no point are the walls more 
than a quarter of an inch in thickness, and the 
inside is as symmetrical and shapely as if the 
nest had been woven around a form. 
The usefulness of the Baltimore Oriole is fully 
equal to its beauty. As a destroyer of cater- 
