48 The Wilson Bulletin.— 43. 



grasses, too, of which it was composed being very coarse. 

 I am of the opinion that young and unskilled birds of this 

 species frequently build amateur nests; and it is only the 

 older individuals that construct the finer and more elaborate 

 fabrics. 



When Special Bulletin No. 2 of Bendire's Life Histo- 

 ries of North A7uerieaJi Bir(/s appeared (June, 1895), we had 

 given us under his account of the Orchard Oriole a very 

 complete and excellent description of its nests and build- 

 ing. Among other facts he states that "Both sexes assist 

 in nest building, and generally finish one in three or four 

 days. The nests are placed in trees or bushes, from 6 to 

 40 feet from the ground, usually from 12 to 20 feet, in a great 

 variety of trees, less often in conifers than in deciduous kinds. 

 Apple, pear, different kinds of oaks, sycamore, elm, cotton- 

 wood, maple, walnut, mesquite, hackberry, prickly ash, 

 cedar, and pine are a few of the many selected as the nest- 

 ing sites. In the south the Orchard Oriole nests occasion- 

 ally in the gray moss {Tillandsia iisneo'ides) so commonly 

 found hanging from many of the trees there." 



"The location and manner of attaching its ingeniously 

 wooven, basket-like nests vary greatly. Some are set in a 

 crotch formed by several small twigs; the bottom of the nest 

 occasionally rests on, and is supported by these, and again 

 in similar locations it is unsupported, but the sides are 

 securely fastened to several of the twigs among which it is 

 placed; then again some are built in a fork of a horizontal 

 limb, like the nest of an Acadian Flycatcher or a Vireo, 

 both sides of the nest being fastened to the fork in which it 

 is placed; again it may be fastened to some suitable twigs 

 by the rim only, in the manner of a hammock. Compara- 

 tively few, excepting those of the last style and those built 

 in moss, can really be called pensile or even semipensile 

 nests. They also vary greatly in bulk and depth." Some- 

 times too, the bird uses the grass while green, and this color 

 not only serves to further conceal the nest from view in the 

 tree where it is built, but after the structure has been col- 



