27
Open Letters.
The Baltimore oriole mutilating flowers.
The interesting note of J. Schneck in regard to the oriole piercing
the flowers of the trumpet-vine for the nectar reminds me of a note
which I sent the American Naturalist, and printed in 1869, on p. 380.
In that case the Missouri currant (Ribes aureum) was the plant. The
fact of their piercing large numbers of flowers for at least two seasons
in the village of Union Springs, Cayuga county, was well established.
Honey bees gleaned freely of the honey through these holes, as the
corolla is too long for them to reach it through the tube .- W. J. BEAL,
Agricultural College, Michigan.