"This Oriole takes his name because he was once supposed to hang his
nest chiefly in the branches of orchard trees; but he is as likely to be
found in the maples by the garden fence as anywhere else.

"He has a cheerful rolling song, as varied in its different tunes as
that of the Song Sparrow. It is not like a Robin's, or a Thrush's, or
even like Brother Baltimore's; it is perfectly original, and before
these birds leave the Orchard you must listen, to hear it for
yourselves.

"Mrs. O. Oriole is a famous weaver; her grass nest, hung
from a crotch, is one of the tidiest bits of basket-making in Birdland,
and would do credit to human hands. Yet she has only a beak for a
shuttle or darning-needle--whichever you please to call it. I think it
is most like the needle of a sewing-machine, with the eye at the point,
so that it pokes the thread through as it goes into the cloth, instead
of pulling it through with the other end."


The Orchard Oriole

Length seven inches.

Male: black; the rump, breast, belly, and lesser wing-coverts chestnut.
Round black tail with whitish tips, and some whitish on the wings.

Female: grayish-green on the upper parts, greener on the tail, with
paler bars on the wings; dull yellow on all the under parts.

The young male is like the female the first year, but a little browner