ORNITHOLOGY 



225 



Nesting of a Bullock Oriole. 



BV I*. II. VAX IIISE, SL'.MMEKLAXD, H. C, 



CANADA. 



On June 7th, 191 5, noticing a Bullock 

 Oriole (Icterus hullocki) trying- to pull 

 strings from a piece of carpet that was 

 hanging- on the clothesline, I put the car- 

 pet on a wire running along the front of 

 the porch and placed upon it short pieces 

 of string. 



The bird, which was a female, would 

 come and get the string while I was on the 

 porch, being gone only two and a half 

 to three minutes at a time when she would 



BULLOCK ORIOLE WITH STRING. 



return for more. The nest was about a 

 hundred feet from the house. 



The male did not help with the nest- 

 building but the female worked all day on 

 the seventh and eighth and until eleven- 

 thirty on the ninth, taking fifty strings, 

 each about a foot long, on the latter day. 

 The nest was then finished except for 

 lining. 



Early on the morning of the eleventh 

 she came aagin and called to me. I 

 thought perhaps she was after more string- 

 but that was not what she wanted, so I 

 combed some hair out of my collie and 

 put that up for her. She soon came and 

 took several big mouthfuls, with which 

 she lined the nest. 



The voung left the nest on the twelfth 

 of Tulv. 



BULLOCK ORIOLE NEbT COMPOSED MOSTLY 

 OF STRING. 



The 1916 Audubon Bird Calendar has 

 been issued and may be secured at the 

 various state departments of the society. 



Starry blossoms and blossomy stars 

 Bedeck the earth and the sky; 



Let us not go about with unseeing eyes, 

 That pass these -beauties by. 



— Emma Peirce. 



INTERIOR OF NEST, LINED WITH HAIR 

 FROM COLLIE DOG. 



