226 



HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G O SSIP. 



and hurries about with a busy and gleeful air, 

 heedless of your espionage, his crimson coat gleaming 

 among the glossy leaves or contrasting sharply with 

 the aromatic blossoms. 



Though in this steady and diligent search for 

 insect-food, he helps the orchardist by the destruction 

 of hordes of noxious and well-hidden kinds, yet of 

 course, not having any such purpose in view, and 

 making no benevolent distinction when his palate is 

 suited, he undoubtedly snaps up many an insect which 

 is perfectly harmless to both tree and fruit, or does 

 positive harm by killing such as prey upon the enemies 

 of the apple-cultivator. Yet, when I examine his list 

 of foods, I cannot but think that the average of good 

 achieved against evil done is greatly in his favour. 



The gaiety which marks all his actions, also 

 characterizes his song. He whistles a clear full tune, 

 not the richly modulated music of the Baltimore, but 

 a sprightly impromptu air, hastening from note to 

 note as though singing against time, and yet under a 

 protest at the speed he is obliged to assume, and with 

 an embarrassed feeling that he is not doing his best. 

 This remarkable song is altogether indescribable, and 

 is not heard with much regularity after the 1st of 

 June, as he knows the necessity of controlling his 

 exuberant spirits for the sake of the safety of 

 his defenceless household. 



Finding his pleasure and profit in the garden and 

 in familiarity with men, this oriole makes his home 

 almost exclusively in orchards, and is found breeding 

 there from the Rio Grande to Lake Erie ; but rarely 

 to the eastward of the Hudson River. Frequently 

 several nests will be seen in adjoining trees, all the 

 proprietors on the most neighbourly terms with each 

 other, and with other birds. The nest is ordinarily 

 suspended only a few feet from the ground, between 

 the gnarled twigs near the end of an apple-bough, to 

 which it is strongly bound, and beneath which it is 

 essentially pensile, although by no means so freely 

 swinging a pouch as the structure of the Baltimore 

 •oriole. Nevertheless, it is sometimes hung (much 

 after the manner of the Baltimore's) among the 

 pendent tips of drooping willow branches, several of 

 which will be found woven into its sides in such a 

 way as to serve as admirable upright ribs or stays. 

 Such nests are likely to prove of neater workmanship, 

 and perhaps a trifle greater in depth, than others. 

 In both cases, however, the shape and proportions 

 are nearly the same, the cavity being about as large 

 as a coffee-cup. The walls are rather thin, particu- 

 larly in nests built at the south, where a circulation 

 of air is so desirable. 



The material of which this beautiful and easily 

 recognised structure is composed, consists usually of 

 pliant stems, yellowish-green grass, often with the 

 ripe heads left on, giving a somewhat rough appear- 

 ance in many cases to the outside of the nest. This 

 grass is woven into a firm basket, the stems being 

 closely interlaced 'as if done with a needle. Some- 



times there is a lining of thistle and cotton-wood 

 blossoms, the downy breast-feathers of ducks, etc., 

 forming a soft mat at the bottom. The leaves about 

 the nest are arranged, often apparently by the artful 

 skill of the bird — to shed the rain, shade the sitter, 

 and conceal the domicile, which last intention is so- 

 well accomplished that the nest is difficult to discover, 

 no matter how familiar you may be with the orchard 

 or grove in which you are certain it is situated, 

 since its colour harmonises closely with all its sur- 

 roundings. 



While this is the customary type of nest in the 

 interior of the country, and remarkable for its 

 uniformity over a wide region, variations occur on 

 the seaboard. Thus at Trenton, New Jersey, where 

 these orioles have frequented for many years a group 

 of pines and button-woods, near the rural home of 

 Dr. Charles C. Abbott (the well-known naturalist), 

 they build homes of quite different character. In 

 social harmony, several pairs annually place at 

 the extremities of the upper branches, nests which 

 are not hung underneath in any sense, but supported 

 in the midst of a cluster of twigs, and resting upon 

 them and the branch from which they spring. 



These nests are formed with care out of the same 

 long flexible grasses used in the pendulous structures ; 

 but skilfully intermixed with them are many pine 

 needles, an ingredient which would not be per- 

 missible in the other type of architecture. Dr. 

 Abbott tells me that this is the prevailing style 

 throughout all the pine districts of southern N£w 

 Jersey. On the other hand, in the northern part of 

 the state, fifty to a hundred miles distant, the orchard! 

 orioles never fix upon the pine branches as a site, but 

 inhabit the fruit trees exclusively, making a nest of 

 interwoven grasses, not pensile, but upheld as before 

 in the midst of a clump of twigs, to which it is- 

 securely fastened. Again, a competent observer in 

 this district tells me he has never known the orioles 

 there to use the same nest twice ; whereas at Trenton, 

 not only do they return to the same ancestral tree 

 season after season, but always tear the old nest to 

 pieces with amusing vehemence to obtain material 

 for construction of the new, which are occasionally 

 erected upon the foundations of a previous structure. 



The elongated eggs are impure white, marbled 

 with irregular streaks of black and leather-brown, 

 much like those of the Baltimore oriole. 



Wilson says that this songster is easily reared from) 

 the nest, and in confinement becomes very tame and 

 familiar. " A friend of ours," says Mr. Thomas 

 Gentry, " kept one in a cage for several years, which' 

 whistled with remarkable clearness and spirit. It 

 was a particular favourite with its owner, and learned 

 to come at his bidding, and at a given signal would 

 pour forth its choicest music with an energy and 

 power that were truly astonishing." 



Krnest In-gersoll. 



Nav ITavat, Conn., U.S. A, 



