216 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 211 



in the woods and about the ranches and towns, where we found 

 several nests. On his visit, a year later, Herbert Friedmann (1925) 

 found it very common, "close to houses at times; in fact they seem not 

 to mind human presence at all." He found 16 nests. 



Nesting. — The early accounts of the nesting habits of Sennett's 

 hooded oriole differ considerably from what recent observers have 

 noted. Sennett (1878) wrote: 



Their usual nesting places are the hanging trusses of Spanish moss, everywhere 

 provokingly abundant on the larger growth of trees. I have also found their 

 nests on the lower limbs of trees and the drooping outer branches of undergrowth; 

 but wherever found, the inevitable Spanish moss enters largely or wholly into 

 their composition. So durable is this moss that it lasts for years, and as a con- 

 sequence there are everywhere ten old nests to one new one. The heart of the 

 moss when separated from its white covering becomes the "curled hair" of com- 

 merce. The Hooded Oriole takes this dry vegetable hair, and ingeniously weaves 

 it into the heart of a living truss of moss, making a secure and handsome home. 

 I took one no higher than my head, and others thirty feet or more from the ground. 



Later, he wrote (1879): "One nest was discovered, in a corn-field, 

 made of Spanish moss, which was interwoven with a couple of leaves 

 of two corn-stalks, which it thus bound together; another was found 

 in a truss of Spanish moss, having dried grasses for lining, instead of 

 the usual dead and black hair-like moss. In several nests were horse- 

 hair and tufts of goats' wool." 



Merrill's (1878) account is somewhat similar: 



The nests of this bird found here are perfectly characteristic, and cannot be 

 confounded with those of any allied species; they are usually found in one of the 

 two following situations: the first and most frequent is in a bunch of hanging moss, 

 usually at no great height from the ground; when so placed, the nests are formed 

 almost entirely by hollowing out and matting the moss, with a few filaments of a 

 dark hair-like moss as lining; the second situation is in a bush (the name of which 

 I do not know) growing to a height of about six feet, a nearly bare stem throwing 

 out two or three irregular masses of leaves at the top; these bunches of dark green 

 leaves conceal the nest admirably; it is constructed of filaments of the hair-like 

 moss just referred to, with a little Spanish moss, wool, or a few feathers for lining; 

 they are rather wide and shallow for Orioles' nests, and, though strong, they 

 appear thin and delicate. A few pairs build in Spanish bayonets ( Yucca) growing 

 on sand ridges in the salt prairies; here the nests are built chiefly of the dry, tough 

 fibres of the plant, with a little wool or thistle-down as lining; they are placed 

 among the dead and depressed leaves, two or three of which are used as supports. 



Bendire (1895) says of a nest built in a yucca: "One now before 

 me, in an excellent state of preservation, measures exteriorly 3% 

 inches in depth by 3 inches in width; the inner cup is 2% inches wide 

 by 2 inches deep. It is built throughout of yucca fiber and contains 

 no lining. 



"Nidification begins in April, and the earliest record of a full clutch 

 of eggs having been taken is April 17, a set of five; the latest was 

 July 5; probably two broods are raised in a season." 



