66 
PICTURES OF BIRD LIFE. 
appearance. The male is dressed when at his best estate in gold, and is very 
conspicuous, but he does not seem to arrive at this fulness of beauty until his 
third year. Then his bill is orange-brown, with a dark streak from its base to 
the eye. The whole of his plumage is bright gamboge-yellow, with the exception 
of the wings and the tail, which are black, but the middle of the wing when 
closed is yellow, and the tail feathers terminate in yellow. The female is greenish- 
olive above, greyish-white below, where the plumage is marked by distinct greyish- 
brown streaks disposed longitudinally. The wings and tail are olive-grey, tail 
tinged with black, and it has no dark streak behind the bill and eye. This 
soberness of colour seems a providential arrangement to render her less conspicuous 
when nesting cares and the importance of rearing the young press upon her. The 
male bird can escape then into thick foliage, but she is either sitting or occupied 
about the brood. The young birds themselves resemble the mother in sombre 
colouring, though the males can be distinguished by their lighter tints. A variety 
of the bird has been found with black spots on a brilliant yellow ground. 
During the first two years of the male’s life it is scarcely possible to distinguish 
it from its mate; in the second year it is more yellow and advanced in its colours, 
but the plumage is not yet bright. 
Orioles live much in woods and thickets, remaining in pairs until they band 
together for the autumnal migration. In all the species known, the prevalent colour 
of the males is yellow, while their mates are dressed in tarnished yellow or greenish 
plumage. The so-called Golden Oriole is known by the French as loriot, and by 
the Germans as Wiedewal or Witwell. Professor Newton remarks on this—“ With 
these is clearly cognate the English ‘ Witwall,’ though when this is nowadays 
used at all it is applied to the green woodpecker, probably as the bird which by 
its colours most recalled to our Teutonic forefathers the Continental species so 
familiar to them.” Its cry is loud, full, and flute-like. And the name Oriole seems 
a corruption of the Latin “Aureolus,” “pretty little bird dressed in gold.” Hence 
it is like gilding refined gold to talk of the bird as the Golden Oriole. 
The Oriole’s habits are secluded, haunting lonely groves and thickets on the 
skirts of woods, excepting in autumn, when it flies to the orchards and commits 
great havoc amongst their fruit. It loves to keep in the most bushy trees, so as 
rarely to be seen on a bare branch. It is difficult to get near it, but the expert 
sportsman can sometimes approach under the deception of an imitative whistling, 
but the ear of the bird is so acute that a single mistake or false note sends it off 
at once. In the high trees which Orioles frequent, besides concealment they find 
