NESTS AND NEST-BUILDING IN BIRDS 361 



apply to the passage of a strand around a twig, when the head 

 and neck are turned and twisted in such a way that mistakes 

 are needless. 



What was the result at the end of approximately two hours' 

 working on the first day? Simply this: a small mass of bast 

 had been fiiTtily secured to a primary supporting twig, with a 

 few hairs or fine strands visible only by aid of a glass uniting 

 it to a second support, the body of it knotted and interlooped 

 at no doubt hundreds of points, with long strands hanging 

 free at unsecured ends (compare fig. 19). 



While at work the oriole frequently spreads wings and tail 

 as an aid in balancing, and when a stiff breeze is blowing there 

 would seem to be no position or acrobatic feat which such a 

 bird cannot assume or perform. The oriole's peculiar harsh chat- 

 ter, which is clearly not always a source of alarm, was often heard 

 /rom this working bird, while the male sang jubilantly from a 

 station near at hand. 



On the second day the work of construction was under way 

 as early as 5.15 a. m., and at 7 o'clock the primary nest-mass 

 had the appearance shown in figure 19. It should be added that 

 the actual number of fibers composing this body, is much greater 

 than could either be seen, or shown in a drawing, but the only 

 progress visible to the eye at a distance of 20 feet was registered 

 in the greater number of fibers leading from the second point of 

 attachment, and in the denser character of the mass itself. 

 With every visit most attention was always devoted to the 

 swaying mass, yet as before it had the appearance of being 

 knit with very loose stitches; nothing seemed to be drawn 

 tight with the possible exception of some of the fibers binding 

 the twigs. The records given in Table IX embrace a period 

 of continuous observation with the exception of two breaks 

 between numbers 9 and 10, and 15 and 16. The time spent 

 in working at successive visits varied from 10 seconds to 3 

 minutes, and the material used conn is ted almost wholly of 

 gray bast in its natural form or shredded into strips of a few 

 inches to over a foot in length, all procured from an adjoining 

 swampy tract and a few other points in the neighborhood. 

 Rarely more than a single fiber was brought at a time, and as 

 already noted the attention which this received was only a 

 fraction of that bestowed on the nest-mass. 



