:::::::::'»x TWO BiRD-LOVERS IN MEXICO B"""": 



nut. Certain it was that much of their food consisted 

 of nuts which had a rind hke stone itself, but which 

 their powerful mandibles crushed with ease. 



The most abundant birds in this locality were the 

 beautiful yellow and black Mexican Caciques, great 

 tropical orioles, which are so characteristic a feature 

 of e(piatorial countries. As in the virile warmth of 

 Mexico many things are carried to an extreme, which, 

 in the North, are developed but moderately, so with 

 the nest of the orioles. Our Baltimore Oriole builds a 

 long, shapely purse, deep-cradled and elm-swung, where 

 its eggs and young are exposed to but few dangers. It 

 is said that in the south of the United States, owing 

 to the increase of heat, the nests are shallower, more 

 vireo-like. Yet in the tropical heat of Mexico, the 

 nests of the orioles are three and four feet in depth, 

 hung from tlie ti})s of branches and waving in every 

 breath of air. Tliey are finely woven of reeds, open- 

 meshed, but tough and difficult to tear. A small 

 entrance at the toj> leads down tlirough the long, narrow 

 neck to the olobular nest-chamber at the bottom. 



The morning flight of these calandria.^, as the 

 Mexicans call them, was one of the delights of our 

 cam])-life. Jet-black birds they were, long crested, with 

 brilliant yellow shoulders, lower back, and tail, save the 

 two inner feathers. The ivory-like beaks were long 

 and needle-like, as sucli a master weaver's should be. 

 They came from the northward, as if the bats of the 

 «^". 282 ^ 



