

FEBRUARY, 1879. 



No. 7. 



Breeding Habits of the Hooded 

 Oriole. 



BY KRNKST INGKKSOLL 



all 



[From the advance sheets of "The Nests and 

 Eggs of American Bii'ds."] 



HE diminutive Hooded Oriole {Tcte- 

 rits ruculatus) or Banana-bird of Cen- 

 tral America, is abundant in summer 

 ilong the Mexican frontier in the Colo- 

 rado Valley, and throughout southern Cal- 

 ifornia. It arrives at San Diego, Cal., a- 

 l)out the 22nd of April, but very soou re- 

 tires from the coast to the warmer valleys 

 of the interior, to breed. In the villages, 

 and at the military posts along the Rio 

 Grande, it is a I'amiliar bird, breeding in 

 close proximity to men, and overcoming 

 much of the shyness natural to it iu wilder 

 parts. It penetrates as far north as Los 

 Angelos, and eastward into Cooke county, 

 Texas, five hundi'ed miles north of the 

 mouth of the Rio Grande. At the mouth 

 of that river. Sennet found it "more plen- 

 tiful than all the rest of the genus combin- 

 ed." 



These Orioles chose for nesting places 

 all sorts of trees and large plants, placing 

 their homes from five to ibrty feet high. 

 Vinery has great charms for them, but their 

 especial favorite is a tuft of the hanging 

 Spanish moss everywhere so abundant on 

 the larger growth of trees. Whatever the 

 situation, the Oriole takes the dry white 

 vegetable threads (which constitute the 

 heart of the moss, and form the "curled 

 hair" of commerce) and, with its slender 

 pointed beak ingeniously weaves them into 

 the mass of a living tress, making a secure 

 and handsome home. 80 durable is this 

 moss that it lasts for years, and as a con- 



sequence there are everywhere ten old nests 

 to one new one. Such are the Hooded O- 

 riole's abodes along the lower Rio Grande. 

 Elsewhere, where the Spanish hair-moss is 

 less available, the bird places its nest in 

 the crotch of several twigs on the outer end 

 of a limb, and weaves it, with secure fast- 

 enings, out of a long, tough grass, which 

 grows in flat or wet prairies, called "wire 

 grass." Composed almost wholly of this 

 long grass, placed in a clump of leaves and 

 renuiining green for several days, the nest 

 is hard to discover. Its outside diameter 

 is four inches, inside (at top) two inches ; 

 depth, outside, four inches, inside two and 

 one-half inches. The interiors of these nests 

 vary as greatly as do their external forms, 

 and bear a general resemblance to those of 

 /. spicrius. Sometimes no other lining than 

 the grass itself is put in ; sometimes the 

 maroon red of an old nest will be set of}' by 

 an interior wall of white cow-hair or feath- 

 ers, or only wool, cotton or the soft pappus 

 of seeds. The bird seems to have very in- 

 definite ideas in regard to the furnishing of 

 its house, but is careful about hiding it in 

 dense tufts of leaves. A few pairs. Dr. 

 Merrill tells us, build in Spanish bayonets 

 (yucca) growing on sandy ridges in the salt 

 prairies ; here the material used is chiefly 

 the dry, tough fibers of the plant, with a 

 little wool or thistle-down as lining. The 

 nests are placed among the dead and de- 

 pressed leaves, two or three of which are 

 used as supports. 



Like those of all the Icteridoe^ the eggs of 

 the Hooded Oriole vary greatly in their 

 markings. They are easily distinguished 

 from the other Orioles' eggs, however, by 

 the almost entire absence of the pen-scrat<!h- 

 es and liierogliphics characteristics of the 

 other species, the markings consisting of 

 spots and blotches, forming a ring around 



