(_Icterus galbula_) Oriole and Blackbird family
_Called also_: GOLDEN ORIOLE; FIREBIRD; GOLDEN ROBIN;
HANG-NEST; ENGLISH ROBIN
(Illustration facing p. 191)
_Length_--7 to 8 inches. About one-fifth smaller than the
robin.
_Male_--Head, throat, upper part of back glossy black. Wings
black, with white spots and edgings. Tail-quills black, with
yellow markings on the tips. Everywhere else orange, shading
into flame.
_Female_--Yellowish olive. Wings dark brown, and quills
margined with white. Tail yellowish brown, with obscure,
dusky bars.
_Range_--The whole United States. Most numerous in Eastern
States below 55A deg. north latitude.
_Migrations_--Early May. Middle of September. Common summer
resident.
A flash of fire through the air; a rich, high, whistled song floating
in the wake of the feathered meteor: the Baltimore oriole cannot be
mistaken. When the orchards are in blossom he arrives in full plumage
and song, and awaits the coming of the female birds, that travel
northward more leisurely in flocks. He is decidedly in evidence. No
foliage is dense enough to hide his brilliancy; his temper, quite as
fiery as his feathers, leads him into noisy quarrels, and his
insistent song with its martial, interrogative notes becomes almost
tiresome until he is happily mated and family cares check his
enthusiasm.
Among the best architects in the world is his plain but energetic
mate. Gracefully swung from a high branch of some tall tree, the nest
is woven with exquisite skill into a long, flexible pouch that rain
cannot penetrate, nor wind shake from its horsehair moorings. Bits of
string, threads of silk, and sometimes yarn of the gayest colors, if
laid about the shrubbery in the garden, will be quickly interwoven
with the shreds of bark and milkweed stalks that the bird has found
afield. The shape of the nest often differs, because in unsettled
regions, where hawks abound, it is necessary to make it deeper than
seven inches (the customary depth when it is built near the homes of
men), and to partly close it at the top to conceal the sitting bird.
From four to six whitish eggs, scrawled over with black-brown, are
hatched by the mother oriole, and most jealously guarded by her now
truly domesticated mate.
The number of grubs, worms, flies, caterpillars, and even cocoons,
that go to satisfy the hunger of a family of orioles in a day, might
indicate, if it could be computed, the great value these birds are
about our homes, aside from the good cheer they bring.
There is a popular tradition about the naming of this gorgeous bird:
When George Calvert, the first Lord Baltimore, worn out and
discouraged by various hardships in his Newfoundland colony, decided
to visit Virginia in 1628, he wrote that nothing in the Chesapeake
country so impressed him as the myriads of birds in its woods. But the
song and color of the oriole particularly cheered and delighted him,
and orange and black became the heraldic colors of the first lords
proprietors of Maryland.
Hush!'tis he!
My Oriole, my glance of summer fire,
Is come at last; and ever on the watch,
Twitches the pack-thread I had lightly wound
About the bough to help his housekeeping.
Twitches and scouts by turns, blessing his luck,
Yet fearing me who laid it in his way.
Nor, more than wiser we in our affairs,
Divines the Providence that hides and helps.
_Heave, ho! Heave, ho!_ he whistles as the twine
Slackens its hold; _once more, now!_ and a flash
Lightens across the sunlight to the elm
Where his mate dangles at her cup of felt.
--_James Russell Lowell._