Birds and Nature, Vol. 10 No. 1 [June 1901]

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Various. Birds and Nature, Vol. 10 No. 1 [June 1901]

JUNE

BULLOCK’S ORIOLE (Icterus bullocki.)

AN AFTERNOON IN THE CORNFIELD

THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS

HOUSE-HUNTING IN ORCHARD TOWN

THE SANDERLING (Calidris arenaria.)

PARTNERS

THE GREAT NORTHERN SHRIKE (Lanius borealis.)

ORIOLE

THE FIRE-BIRD

BRANDT’S CORMORANT (Phalacrocorax penicillatus.)

MATE, OR PARAGUAY TEA

THE AMERICAN BUFFALO (Bison americanus.)

MR. CHAT, THE PUNCHINELLO. A TRUE STORY

AGATE

MARTYRS OF THE WOODS

A PANSY BED

THE MULLEN

THE CALL OF THE PARTRIDGE

JIM CROW AND HIS COUSINS

COCOA (Theobroma cacao, L.)

THE CANOE-BIRCH

Отрывок из книги

Bullock’s Oriole, a species as handsome and conspicuous as the Baltimore Oriole, replaces it in the western portions of the United States and is likewise widely distributed. Its breeding range within our borders corresponds to its distribution. It is only a summer resident with us, arriving usually from its winter haunts in Mexico during the last half of March and, moving slowly northward, reaches the more northern parts of its breeding range from a month to six weeks later. It appears to be much rarer in the immediate vicinity of the seacoast than in the Great Basin regions, where it is common nearly everywhere, especially if sufficient water is found to support a few stunted cottonwoods and willows. During my extensive wanderings through nearly all the states west of the Rocky Mountains and extending from the Mexican to the British borders, I have met with this species almost everywhere in the lowlands and in some localities have found it very abundant. Like the Baltimore Oriole, it avoids densely wooded regions and the higher mountains. It is especially abundant in the rolling prairie country traversed here and there by small streams having their sources in some of the many minor mountain ranges which are such prominent features of the landscape in portions of Idaho, Washington and Oregon. These streams are fringed with groves of cottonwood, mixed with birch, willow and alder bushes, which are the favorite resorts of this Oriole during the breeding season. The immediate vicinity of water is, however, not considered absolutely necessary, as I have found it nesting fully a mile or more away from it on hillsides, the edges of table-lands and in isolated trees, or even in bushes. In Colorado it is said to be found at altitudes of over eight thousand feet, but as a rule it prefers much lower elevations.

The call notes of Bullock’s Oriole are very similar to those of the Baltimore, but its song is neither as pleasing to the ear nor as clear and melodious as that of the latter. Its food is similar and consists principally of insects and a few wild berries.

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“The shrike is a cousin to the crow. Nearly all the crows have black feathers, but the butcher bird wears a different dress in France from the one he wears in England, and in India he has still another garb,” said Aunt Dorothy.

“Yes,” said Uncle Philip, “but all the shrikes everywhere have toothed bills.”

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