254 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



stretched position. Many twists, perhaps aided by the wind, 

 occurred in the thread that held the bird a prisoner. On the 

 other hand the entanglement suggested how the young victim 

 had struggled during life to release itself. 



Were I to propose an explanation of the tragedy, the inference 

 drawn is that on the advent of the young getting its feathers 

 the inspiration to leave seized the bird, and it attempted to 

 crawl up the inside of the nest to the opening. Young orioles 

 are possessed of good climbing powers. After reacliing this 

 point its feet probably got caught in one of the many loops of 

 soft silky strings of which the nest was constructed. Then 

 getting out on the edge of the cradle, carrying the thread 

 along and feeling its feet entangled, it attempted to extricate 

 itself by jumping and fluttering, thereby hopelessly hanging 

 itself. The bird's continued struggle under these peculiar 

 conditions must have favored the twisting and tightening of 

 the string about both legs. One side of the loop being weaker 

 had broken away, leaving the other end fastened securely to 

 the nest. The photographic illustration conveys a better con- 

 ception of this tragedy of bird life than a word description. 



The nest was a typical one, made of a multitude of exquisitely 

 woven, light, flossy fibres, derived from the bittersweet. It 

 was lined inside with a few rootlets and black horse hairs. 

 After the bittersweet dies, the exposed bark peels away easily 

 into thin, thread-like strands. By the second year the birds 

 find the weather-beaten strings of tiiis vine very well adapted 

 for nesting material, though occasionally one may act as a 

 snare, causing the death of one of the precious progeny. 



Bowdish has recorded in "Bird Lore" a somewhat similar 

 accident to a Baltimore oriole. He found a nearly completed 

 nest from which hung the dead body of the female bird. A 

 horse hair used in the construction had become twisted about 

 the neck and she had been strangled to death. 



In the Fall of 1906, 1 found a burdock plant which had captured 

 the golden-crowned kinglet, shown in the jilate photographic 

 illustration. I found these specimens at the l)order of an open 

 field along the roadside in Chicago. The mummified bird 

 showed evident signs of having been exposed to the action of 

 the weather some time before I found it. Numerous feathers 



