362 



FRANCIS H. HERRICK 



TABLE IX 



Building Records of the Baltimore Oriole. Second Day (May 15) 



During the forenoon of the second day the female worked 

 with the same rapidity and decision, pushing her threads with 

 a dart of the bill through the nest body, catching up their ends 

 or the ends of some other strands and drawing them through 

 in the opposite direction, with one foot often grasping a twig 

 and with the other the nest -mass, thrusting and pulling, now 

 straddling the mass and balancing with spread wings, working 

 at it from above, from below, or at either side, always at each 

 visit not only working on the strand placed, but on many others 

 which were hanging free. The result shortly after 8 o'clock 

 showed a web of interlaced fibers attached to three twigs, 

 representing about one-half the margin of the future nest, and 

 extended downward and laterally into a loose fabric which 

 one hour later had the appearance shown in figure 20. 



By the end of the period represented in Table IX two ad- 

 ditional twigs had been included, thus virtually completing 

 the rim, and the free mass was coming to take on the curved 

 form of the nest wall. Further it was worked almost wholly 



