160 A Day in the Cork Woods 
to pick them out even with the most powerful glass. When 
alarmed, the Orioles, upon quitting such a natural sanctuary almost 
invariably thread their way with undulating flight to a similar tree, 
passing by those such as cork-oaks and olives which are of more 
sombre tint. I have repeatedly watched this for many years past, 
and am convinced it is no mere chance but a regular habit and 
it may be taken as an axiom that if Orioles are heard to be calling 
on a wooded hillside it is almost a certainty that they will be found 
perched in the most vividly-foliaged trees in the neighbourhood. 
A certain number remain to nest in southern Andalucia and all 
the nests | have seen have been suspended to the branches of the 
Spanish oak, usually towards the extremity of some pendent bough. 
These nests are beautifully constructed of fine mosses, 
lichens and fibrous roots woven around the twigs and lined with 
horsehair and wool. The eggs are white, delicately spotted and 
blotched with purple. In 1906 I found a nest among the smaller 
branches near the summit of an oak, about 4o ft. up, and ascended 
the tree. When still some 12 ft. below the nest, it became clear that 
the branches would not support my weight. I was most anxious 
to take the eggs and so set to work to get at this seemingly 
inaccessible nest. By climbing up an adjacent and somewhat 
stouter branch which shot upwards for a few feet, I reached a 
point whence I was able to pass the end of my silk rope 
round a second branch near the one supporting the Orioles’ 
nest. I then extemporized a tackle and by its aid hauled the 
two boughs together, making them fast with the end of my /ya, 
or sash. I now used the two branches as a second point of support 
and ascending them yet higher, got my line once again round 
another branch, and hauling it in, also made it fast to the other 
two. By this means I eventually reached a point on the level of 
the nest whence I was able to pass the end of my silk rope 
round the branch containing my prize and, by hauling it in to 
