ORNITHOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES 243 



This is the sum of our knowledge of the bhie honey- 

 creeper, whose appearance is such a dehght to the eye, and 

 whose habits but whet the desire to know more of the inti- 

 macies of hfe of such strange, graceful little beings. 



MORICHE ORIOLE 



Icterus chrysoceplialus (Linn.) 



One of the first birds to greet us at Kalacoon was the 

 moriche oriole. These birds were unusual in their charm, 

 for they were satisfying both to the eye and ear. From 

 dawn until the passing of the swift tropical twilight their 

 black forms, crowned and shouldered and booted with gold, 

 looped palm with palm, or glanced in the sunlight as they 

 sped away to the denser secondgrowth in search of insect 

 food. And hardly ever did they perch without giving utter- 

 ance to the silvery thread of warbling notes which, while indi- 

 vidual and distinctive, yet with no less certainty declared 

 their oriole relationship. 



Late in February, upon our arrival at Kalacoon, we 

 discovered no less than five nests of this oriole in the single 

 royal palm in the compound in front of the house. We soon 

 found that only one pair of orioles occupied the tree, and 

 each day it became more and more probable that this pair 

 was the architect of all five nests. 



Two of the nests were complete and apparently several 

 months old. Three were unfinished and upon two of these 

 we saw the birds working intermittenth\ One of these nests 

 contained two eggs, one of which w^e took as it had apparent- 

 ly never been described. 



The nests were placed on the under side between the 

 leaflets of one side of the frond, about two feet from the tip. 

 They were made entirely of shreds of the leaves themselves, 

 which the birds tore from a particular frond, a frond which 

 through their industry had become almost denuded. The 

 green fibre was w^oven with the bill and the process was not 



