THE OOLOGIST. 



197 



il.s whicli some situations present; and I 

 presume tiiat as a rule their nests suf- 

 fix- more from strong wind and violent 

 storms, from not being, I venture to 

 say, as securely fastened. Allow me 

 t ) illustrate this assertion by the nest 

 of a young pair of Orchard Orioles. 

 They were evidently young of the pre- 

 vious year, and this being their first ex- 

 perience in nesting, it presents many 

 interesting points. 



It was a beautifully woven liasket, 

 placed in the uppermost branches of a 

 slentler willow, apparently unexcelled 

 in workmanshii), but coarser in com- 



position tlian any other nest of this 

 species that I ever .saw; and propor- 

 tionaly much sliaHower than nests of 

 older Ijirds phiced in such slender trees 

 prove to be. However, they neglected 

 one thing of vital importance, they over- 

 looked the fasf<mings and the day I 

 first lieheld it, (June 21, 48S6) it was no 

 h)uger a place of safety. Ere long 

 their work wt)uld ha\e been in vain for 

 then the eggs found barely room in the 

 partlj' overturned nest. 



The nest, now before me, shows no 

 trace of having been fastened in any 

 way, although there was a few straws 



NEST AND EGGS OK ?.!AE.^II HAWK. 



which held it in i)lace until llie weight 

 of the bird, during a strong wind, had 

 broken them asunder on one side. The 

 material was so much coarser tiiat any- 

 one accustomed to seeing nests of the 

 Orchard Oriole would have noticed it 

 at once, in fact, more than half of it is 

 composed of coarse grass wliile all 

 other nests to which I have access are 

 composed, almost exclusively, of fine 

 sedges of the genus Eleocharis and fine 

 grass blades. Furthermore it proves to 

 ))e the only true basket-shaped nest 



among them, and accurate measuring 

 resulted as follows: 



Diameter, outside, 3.2.1 x 4.25; inside. 

 2.75 X 1.76. Depth, outside, 3.00; in- 

 side, 2.50. The bottom is almost per- 

 fectly tiat and measures 2.75 x 2.50 

 inche.-. 



The nest mentioned in my article of 

 September as being found in an odd 

 place, was constructed l)y a pair in full 

 dress, and is composed of a selection of 

 very small sedge and grass blades vary- 

 ing from .02 to .07 of an inch in width 



