SENNETT'S HOODED ORIOLE 217 



Perhaps the Spanish "moss" had largely disappeared from the 

 vicinity of Brownsville at the time of our visit, for all of the nests 

 we saw were in palms or palmettos. We found several of their nests 

 in palms 25 or 30 feet from the ground and generally inaccessible. 

 On May 25, 1923, we found three nests in a grove of palmettos near a 

 house ; a man and his boys helped us to climb to these by means of a 

 ladder; and from one of them I collected a nice, fresh set of four 

 eggs. The nests were all neatly woven cups, made entirely of the 

 fibers of the palmetto leaves; they were securely fastened to the 

 under side of the leaf, which generally was green, the supporting 

 fibers being sewn through some strong portion of the leaf; as a result 

 they were well shielded from either rain or sun. 



Friedmann's (1925) experience was similar; all his 16 nests were 

 "sewn on to the under side of the palm or banana leaves"; they were 

 much shallower than nests of the Baltimore oriole, but deeper than 

 those of the orchard oriole. Neither of us saw any nests in Spanish 

 "moss" (Tillandsia) ; in fact, I cannot remember seeing any lichen 

 in that vicinity; but some of the trees on the edges of the resacas 

 supported more or less Usnea. 



Eggs. — Bendire (1895) writes: 



The number of eggs laid to a set varies from three to five, sets of four being most 

 common, and an egg is deposited daily. They are mostly ovate in shape; the 

 shell is delicate, rather frail, and without luster. The ground color is dull white, 

 occasionally this has a pale buffy and again a faint bluish tint. The eggs are 

 blotched and spotted, principally about the larger end, with irregularly shaped 

 markings ranging from dark seal brown to claret brown, purple, mixed with 

 ochraceous, mouse, and pearl gray, and these rarely run into lines and tracings, so 

 prevalent in the eggs of most of our Orioles. Some eggs are fairly well marked, 

 others only faintly; the lighter shades mentioned largely predominate over the 

 darker ones, and in some the latter are entirely wanting. 



The average measurement of ninety-three specimens in the United States 

 National Museum collection is 21.59 by 15.24 millimetres, or 0.85 by 0.60 inch. 

 The largest egg in the series measures 22.86 by 16 millimetres, or 0.90 by 0.63 inch; 

 the smallest, 18.80 by 15.24 millimetres, or 0.74 by 0.60 inch. 



Plumages. — I have seen no very young orioles of this species, but 

 Chapman (1923a) describes the sequence of plumages briefly as 

 follows: "Nestlings of both sexes resemble the adult female [based on 

 the subspecies Nelsoni], and the female wears essentially similar 

 colors for the remainder of her life. After the post-juvenal molt the 

 male apparently continues to resemble the female during the first 

 part of the winter or even early spring when it acquires a black throat 

 and lores. This constitutes its first breeding plumage and it is worn 

 until the post-nuptial (second fall) molt at which the bird passes into 

 adult winter dress." 



