THE BULLOCK ORIOLE. 



51 



be settled at the beginning of the season, but 

 rivalry is chiefly between the under-colored 

 }-oung blades who must make their peace 

 with the sweet girl graduates of the pre- 

 \ inus year. Orioles are very closely at- 

 tached to a suitable locality, once chosen, 

 and a group of nests in a single tree pre- 

 senting successive annual stages O'f 

 preservation, is fairly eloquent of 

 conjugal fidelity. 



The purse-shaped nest of the 

 Bullock Oriole is a marvel of indus- 

 trv and skill, fully equal in these 

 respects to that of the Baltimore 

 Bird. A specimen before me, from 

 a small willow on Crab Creek, in 

 Lincdln County, taken just after its 

 C'lmpletion, is composed entirely of 

 \egetalilc fibers, the frayed inner 

 bark of dead wilbiws being chiefl_\' 

 in evidaice, wdiile plant-downs of 

 willow, poplar, and clematis are 

 felted intiT the interstices of the 

 lower portion. This pouch is lashed at the brim by a lumdred tiny cables to 

 the sustaining twigs, and hangs to a depth of six inches, with a mean diameter 

 of nearly three, yet so delicate are the materials and sO' fine the workmanship, 

 that the whole structure weighs less than half an ounce. 



A more bulky, loose-meslied afl:air, taken at Brook Lake No. 4, in 

 Douglas Coimty, has a maximum depth of nine inches outside, a mean depth 

 of six and a half inches inside, and a greater diameter of five inches. 



Near farm houses or in town the birds soon learn the value of string, 

 thread, frayed rope, and other waste materials, and nests are made entirely 

 of these less romantic substances. Occasionally a bird becomes entangled in 

 tlie coils of a refractory piece of string or horse-hair, and tragedies of Orioles 

 hanged at their own doorstep are of record. 



The eggs of this species, four to six in number, are usually of a pale 

 smoky gray color, and upon this ground appear curious and intricate scrawl- 

 ings of purplish black, as tho- made by a fine pen, held unsteadily while the 

 egg was twirled. The purpose of this bizarre ornamentation, if indeed it 

 has any, may be thought tO' appear where scanty coils of black horse-hair in 

 the lining of the nest show up in high relief against the normal white back- 



Taken near Spokane. Photo by F. S. Merrill. 



FE.MALE BULLOCK ORIOLE. 



