46 The Wilson Bulletin.— No. 43. 



stance he says that the oriole never builds in any place ex- 

 cepting apple trees and the weeping willow; that they use 

 "the finest, largest, and toughest grasses they can find." * 

 * * "The nest is of a hemispherical form, and is support- 

 ed by the margin only. It seldom exceeds three or four 

 inches in depth, is open almost to the full extent of its 

 largest diameter at the top or entrance ; and finished on 

 all sides as well as within, with the long slender grasses 

 already mentioned. Some of these go round the nest 

 several times, as if coarsely woven together. This is the 

 manner in which the nest is constructed in Louisiana. In 

 the Middle Districts it is usually lined with soft and warm 

 materials." 



Audubon's figure supports this description, but only 

 in part — for having stated that the bird only builds in apple 

 trees and iveepiiig zailiows, he figures the nest in a honey 

 locust! And, for one, I have never seen a nest of the 

 Orchard Oriole that ever looked anything like it. Moreover, 

 Audubon is utterly incorrect when he says that the nest 

 "is supported by the margin only." (Birds of America, 

 Vol. IV. pp. 47, 48.) Turning to Wilson's description of 

 the nest of this oriole, we read that the structure is usually 

 suspended "from the twigs of the apple tree; and often from 

 the extremities of the outward branches. It is formed ex- 

 ternally of a particular species of long, tough and flexible 

 grass, knit or sewed through and through in a thousand 

 directions, as if actually done with a needle. An old lady 

 of my acquantance to whom I was one day showing this 

 curious fabrication, after admiring its texture for some time, 

 asked me, in a tone between joke and earnest, whether I did 

 not think it possible to learn these birds to darn stockings. 

 This nest is hemispherical, three inches deep by four in 

 breadth; the concavity scarcely two inches deep by two in 

 diameter. I had the curiosity to detach one of the fibres, 

 or stalks of dried grass, from the rest and found it to 

 measure thirteen inches in length, and winding round and 

 round the nest! The inside is usually composed of wool, 



