Tea eU BtOONT Bee: L EabeDN 9 
you have spent a day of intensive birding with some of our more active 
members within an hour’s distance of Chicago’s Loop. 
The Paul Bunyan country of Minnesota was brought to us by Walter 
J. Breckenridge and Lake Erie’s shores were portrayed by George H. Orians 
in beautiful color photography. 
Subjects to be covered by next season’s speakers will be outlined in 
pamphlets to be sent to members later in the summer, but a glance over 
the list of speakers assures us that the program will be as interesting as 
was our last. 
ft ft a 
The amily I[cteridae* 
By ANNA C. AMES 
ORIOLES 
OF THE 150 known species of the family icteridae 50 are orioles. The 
majority of the birds of this family are at home only in tropical South 
America, where their brilliant colors are emphasized by the always green 
foliage and the bright sunshine. The large oropendolas and caciques of 
Scuth America build pensile nests three or four feet in length and attach 
them to the ends of branches of tall forest trees, often a dozen or more 
close together. The caciques are orioles that have the bases of their bills 
expanded into frontal shields. 
The name oriole is from the Latin aureolus, meaning golden. Although 
our Baltimore oriole is one of the most brilliantly colored of our common 
birds, it is surpassed in amount and vividness of color by the golden oriole 
(family oriolidae) of Europe, which has an orange-colored head as well as 
a reddish-crange body. Ruskin has said that on the plumes of birds the 
gold of the cloud is put that cannot be gathered of any covetousness. 
East of the Mississippi only two species of orioles are found, the 
fiaming Baltimore and the more modest orchard oriole. 
1. Baltimore Oriole. There is a story to the effect that when Lord 
Baltimore in 1628 was exploring the Chesapeake, weary and disheartened, 
he was cheered by the sight and the sound of the golden and black bird 
that bore his colors. From this incident the Baltimore oriole was named 
by Catesby in 1781. 
Most bright colored birds dress in dark suits for the winter season, but 
the Baltimore after its post-nuptial moult looks much as it did before except 
that there are dark edges to its feathers which wear off to produce his 
spring brilliance. Occasionally, though seldom, the orange-red of the male 
is replaced by a vivid, intense blood red like that of the scarlet tanager. 
Whether this is “due to their greater age or exceptional vigor is not 
certain” (Roberts). 
The orange of the Baltimore oriole is replaced in the female by a dull 
yellow, and the black by grayish-olive. Instead of the white wing markings 
*This concludes a study by Mrs. Ames which started in the June, 1948, Bulletin. 
