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ORIOLE

1394

ORLEANS

About 120 miles from the Atlantic the delta begins, covering 8,500 square miles and stretching along 165 miles of coast. Of these many channels by which the river empties into the Atlantic, only seven are navigable. The Orinoco is 1,550 miles long; 900 miles are navigable to the falls, and 500 miles above the falls. The river usually floods the country in its course from May to January, the overflow sometimes stretching across for 100 miles. Humboldt and Schom-burgh are the great explorers of the Orinoco.

Oriole (o'ri-ol}, any one of a family of Old World birds. The true orioles are related to the crows, and are not to be confused with the so-called orioles of the New World. The latter make a strictly^ American family, extending from Patagonia into the United States. The two families, although entirely distinct, resemble each other in color, the prevailing shades being yellow and black. It was this circumstance that led to the use of the name for the American birds. The true orioles are common in southern Europe and abundant in Oriental and Australian regions. The golden oriole is yellow and black in color, and makes a hanging nest. It is common in southern Europe, but is rarely found in the British Islands. (See BALTIMORE ORIOLE.) Our orchard oriole is not so famous as his gorgeous relative, nor so frequently seen in the north, but their songs are very similar, the orchard oriole's being richer in tone. This bird is about one fourth smaller than the robin, black above with touches of whitish-yellow on wings and tail, below a reddish-brown. It is a summer resident, its range from Canada to Central America. The orchard oriole shows a fondness for orchards, builds there a neatly-woven basket-nest made entirely of dried grasses; in June there may be found therein four whitish, brown-spotted eggs.

Orion (o-rf'on), a hero in Greek mythology, a handsome giant and hunter in Boeotia. At Chios he fell in love with Eos or Merope, and cleared the island of wild beasts to please her. When drunk he insulted her, which her father, with the help of Bacchus, avenged by putting out his eyes. He recovered his sight by exposing his eyeballs to the rising sun. There are several stories of his death; one that he was killed by Diana, whose hunter he became, because Eos had carried him off to Ortygia and offended the gods; another that Apollo, angry with Diana's love for Orion, seeing him swimming in the water, pointed out to her a black object, challenging her to hit it, and she shot it with her arrow, finding, when too late, that it was the head of her lover; a third story lays his death to the sting of a scorpion.

Orion, the brightest constellation in the northern heavens, is named after the Greek hero Orion, who was placed, with his hound, among the stars, and pictured with a girdle, sword, lion's skin and club. The three bright

stars across the center of the constellation are called Orion's belt.

Orizaba (o-re-$dfvd), a volcano in Mexico, 15 miles north of the city of Orizaba. It is 17,362 feet in height. The last severe eruption occurred in 1566.

Ork'ney Islands, a group off the northern coast of Scotland. Twenty-eight of the 90 islands forming the group are inhabited, the largest being Pomona. Hoy has fine cliffs and a hill 1,564 feet high, but the other islands are low and treeless, with many small lakes. Farming, fishing and straw-plaiting are the principal industries. On Pomona is a group of large standing stones arranged in two circles, the inner circle 100 feet across and the outer one 360 feet across, the largest stones being in the smaller circle. The towns are Kirkwall and Stromness. At Kirkwall are the cathedral of St. Magnus, founded in 1138, and a museum with many ancient relics, among others a collection of pins, brooches, bracelets and silver coins, thought to belong to the earliest period of Scottish history, found in 1858. The Orkneys, first inhabited by the Picts, were conquered by Norse rovers and belonged to Scandinavia till 1468, when they were given to James III of Scotland as a pledge for the payment of the dowry of his wife, Margaret of Denmark. The pledge was never redeemed, and in 1590 on the marriage of James VI with the Danish princess Anne, Denmark relinquished her claim to the islands. The population, which is partly Scotch and partly Scandinavian, numbers 36,438. See Orkneys and Shetland by Tudor and Description of the Isles of Orkney by Wallace.

Orleans (dr'U-anz), a French city, situated on the Loire River, 75 miles southwest of Paris. The Forest of Orleans, covering nearly 150 square miles, is near it. The ancient walls and gates of the city have since 1830 been made into boulevards. The Loire is crossed by a bridge 364 feet long. The noted buildings include the cathedral, destroyed by the Huguenots in 1567 and rebuilt by Henry IV and his successors; a museum ; and the house of Joan of Arc. There are three statues of Joan, a bronze one having been erected in 1855. The chief industry is market-gardening, and there are some manufactures, but its trade is of most importance, as it is a railroad center, besides having river and canal routes. Orleans was a Celtic town, called Genabum in 52 B. C., when the Gauls arose there against Julius Caesar. About 272 A. D. it was named Civitas Anreli-ani (City of Aurelius), of which Orleans is a corruption. Besieged by Attila in 451; twice plundered by the Northmen; in 1428 it was attacked by the English and delivered by Joan of Arc, called the Maid of Orleans. During the Huguenot wars it suffered severely, and in the Franco-German War was held a month by the Germans, and then be-