ICTERUS BULLOCKII, BULLOCK'S ORIOLE. 197 



as well as of adaptiDg themselves to circumstances -, in proof of which 

 we have only to examine the three beautiful specimens now lying before 

 us. Each is differently constructed ; and while all three evince wonderful 

 l)owers of weaving, one of them in particular is astonishingly ingenious, 

 displaying the united accomplishments of weaving and basket-making. 

 Before j)roceeding, we may premise that the idea of the nest is a sort of 

 bag or purse, closely woven of slender pliant substances, like strips of 

 fibrous bark, grass, hair, twine, &c., open at the top, and hung by its 

 rim in the fork of a twig or at the very end of a floating spray. 



" The first nest was built in a pine-tree ; and if the reader will call to 

 mind the stiff nature of the terminal branchlets, each bearing a thick 

 bunch of long, straight needle-like leaves, he will see that tlie birds 

 must have been put to their wits' end, though very likely he will not be 

 able to guess how they made shift with such unpromising materials. 

 They made up their minds to use the leaves themselves in the nest, and 

 with this idea they commenced by bending down a dozen or twenty of 

 the stiff', slender filaments, and tying their ends together at the bottom. 

 If you have ever seen a basket-maker at work, with his upright pieces 

 already in place, but not yet fixed together with the circular ones, you 

 will understand exactly what the birds had thus accomplished. Thej^ 

 had a secure frame- work of nearly i)arallel and upright leaves naturally 

 attached to the bough above, and tied together below by the bird's art. 

 This skeleton of the nest was about nine inches long, and four across 

 the top, running to a point below ; and the subsequent weaving of the 

 nest upon this basis was an easy matter to the birds, though, if one 

 were to examine a piece of the fabric cut away from the nest, he could 

 hardly believe that the thin yet tough and strong feltinghad notbeen made 

 by some shoddy contractor for the supply of army clothing. Yet it was 

 ail designed in a bird's little brain, and executed with skilful bill and feet. 



'' Perhaps the young birds that were raised in the second nest did 

 not appreciate their romantic surroundings, but their parents were 

 evidently a sentimental pair. If they did not do their courting ' under 

 the mistletoe,' at any rate they built a cosy home there, tinting the 

 sober reality of married life with the rosy hue of their earlier dreams. 

 The nest Avas hung in a bunch of the ArceuihoMum oxycedri, an abun- 

 dant epiphytic plant, that on the western wilds represents the mistletoe, 

 and recalls the cherished memories of holiday gatherings. The nest 

 was a cylindrical purse, some six inches deep and four broad, hanging 

 to several sprays of the mistletoe, which were partly interwoven with 

 the nest to form a graceful drapery. The felting material was long, 

 soft, vegetable fibre of a glistening silvery lustre, in artistic contrast 

 with the dark-hued foliage. A few hairs were sewn through and 

 through, for greater security, and the pretty fabric was lined with a 

 matting of the softest possible plant-down, like that of a button-wood 

 or an A.sclepias. 



"The general shape and the material of the third nest were much 

 the same as those of the last; it was, however, suspended froiu the 

 forked twig of an oak, and draped, almost to concealment, with leaves. 

 But it had a remarkable peculiarity, being arched over and roofed in 

 at the top with a dome of the same material as the rest, and had a little 

 round hole in one side just large enough to let the birds pass in. Such 

 a globular nest as this is i)robably exceptional; but now it will not do 

 to say that Orioles always build pensile pouches open at the top. 



"The eggs of this species are four or fiv*' in number, and rather elong- 

 ated in form, being much i)()inted at the smaller end. They measure, ou 

 au average, just au inch in length by about two-thirds as much in 



