THE HOUSE BEAUTIFUL 
The inmates of the other oriole home 
were less fortunate than these, for when 
the babies were first hatched a cat caught the 
mother while she was getting food on the 
ground. The father had not seen the tra- 
gedy, and for thirty-six hours he called her 
continually in a plaintive descending whistle. 
Not once did he sing or utter a joyous note, 
but called far into the night, as if wondering 
why she did not come. He tried to take 
her place with the little ones. I saw him 
carry food at intervals of three minutes 
during most of the day, and I am positive 
he slept that night in the nest, a thing male 
orioles are not supposed to do. But be- 
cause only one parent was there to watch, a 
cannibal blue jay found those babies in the 
father’s absence and carried them off, one 
each morning, to a tree quite near and ate 
them. It has been hard not to hate the jays 
since then, and I am ready to accuse them 
of many of the robberies committed in the 
bird-world. Strange as it may seem, the 
oriole did not mourn the loss of his nest- 
