Bird Study 



125 



THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE 

 Teacher's Story 



"I know Jit's name, I know his note, 



That so with rapture takes my sotil; 

 Like flame the gold beneath his throat, 



His glossy cope is black as coal. 

 Oriole, it is the song 



You sang me from the cottonwood, 

 Too young to feel that I was young, 



Too glad to guess if life were good." 



WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. 



ANGLING from the slender, drooping branches of 

 the elm in winter, these pocket nests look like some 

 strange persistent fruit; and, indeed, they are 

 the fruit of much labor on the part of the 

 oriole weavers, those skilled artisans of the bird 

 world. Sometimes the oriole "For the summer 

 voyage his hammock swings" in a sapling, placing 

 it near the main stem and near the top, otherwise 

 it is almost invariably hung at the end of branches 

 and is rarely less than twenty feet from the 

 ground. The nest is pocket-shaped, and usually 



about seven inches long, and four and a half inches wide at the 

 largest part, which is the bottom. The top is attached to forked 

 twigs at the Y so that the mouth or door will be kept open to 

 allow the bird to pass in and out; when within, the weight of the 

 bird causes the opening to contract somewhat and protects the inmate 

 from prying eyes. Often the pocket hangs free so that the breezes may 

 rock it, but in one case we found a nest with the bottom stayed to a twig 

 by guy lines. The bottom is much more closely woven than the upper 

 part for a very good reason, since the open meshes admit air to the sitting 

 bird. The nest is lined with hair or other soft material, and although this 

 is added last, the inside of the nest is woven first. The orioles like to 

 build the framework of twine, and it is marvellous how they will loop this 

 around a twig almost as evenly knotted as if crocheted; in and ou^ of this 

 net the mother bird with her long, sharp beak weaves bits of wood fibre, 

 strong, fine grass and scraps of weeds. The favorite lining is horse hair, 

 which simply cushions the bottom of the pocket. Dr. Detwiler had a pet 

 oriole which built her nest of his hair which she pulled from his head ; is 

 it possible that orioles get their supply of horse hair in a similar way? If 

 we put in convenient places, bright colored twine or narrow ribbons the 

 orioles will weave them into the nest, but the strings should not be long, 

 lest the birds become entangled. If the nest is strong the birds will use 

 it a second year. 



That Lord Baltimore founa in new America a bird wearing his 

 colors, must have cheered him greatly; and it is well for us that this 

 brilliant bird brings to our minds kindly thoughts of that tolerant, high- 

 minded English nobleman. The oriole's head, neck, throat and 

 part of the back are black; the wings are black but the feathers are 

 margined with white; the tail is black except that the ends of the outer 

 feathers are yellow; all the rest of the bird is golden orange, a luminous 



