While the Oriole’s song is not especially melodious to me, it is fresh and cheerful, with something of a human element in its child-like whistle. Young birds in the nest cry “cree-te-te-te-te-te.”
This bird is fond of building near the habitations of men, selecting sites in door-yards, orchards, and lawns. He weaves an artistic habitation at airy heights, choosing strong, flexible material for the pendant, bag-like nest. In California, the Arizona hooded oriole weaves nests of the beautiful Spanish moss; but one occasionally uses the love-vine or yellow dodder to construct a gaudy, pocket-like nest. The Fire-bird would not do this, for it always selects for its nest grayish, bleached material in harmony with the limbs of the trees. An experiment was tried of placing a bunch of colored yarns near its nesting-place, in order to see what, if it used them, the choice of colors would be. It selected all the gray threads, and, when nearly done, a few blue and purple, but not a single red, or green or yellow strand. The strongest and best material is used for the part by which the whole is supported.
The Baltimore Oriole is sometimes on intimate terms with his relative, the Orchard Oriole. Last summer the latter had hung its pretty cup-shaped nest on a branch of weeping willow near my window. The tedium of her sitting was relieved several times by a morning call from Sir Baltimore. He would seat himself on a twig near her nest and utter a soft, clear note, which no doubt meant a greeting in bird language. When he went away a few moments later, his two notes sounded strangely like “A—dieu”—a translation for which Olive Thorn Miller is authority.
But his song and his speech were less heeded than the spectacle of his brilliant flight—
“For look! The flash of flaming wings
The fire plumed oriole.”
Belle Paxson Drury.
BRANDT’S CORMORANT.
(Phalacrocorax penicillatus).
About ¼ Life-size.
FROM COL. CHI. ACAD. SCIENCES.