50 THE BALTIMORE ORIOLB. 



drooping branches of trees (such as the elm, the pear, or 

 apple-tree, wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip-tree, or but- 

 ton wood). It is begun by firmly fastening natural strings 

 of the flax of the silk weed, or swamp-hollyhock, or stout 

 artificial threads, round two or more forked twigs, corres- 

 ponding to the intended width and depth of the nest. With 

 the same materials, willow down, or any accidental ravel- 

 lings, strings, thread, sewing-silk, tow, or wool, that may bo 

 lying near the neighbouring houses, or round the grafts of 

 trees, they interweave and fabricate a sort of coarse cloth 

 into the form intended ; towards the bottom of which they 

 place the real nest, made chiefly of lint, wiry grass, horse 

 and cow hair, sometimes, in defect of hair, lining the inte- 

 rior with a mixture of slender strips of smooth vine bark, 

 and rarely with a few feathers, the whole being of a consi- 

 derable thickness, and more or less attached to the external 

 pouch. Over the top, the leaves, as they grow out, form a 

 verdant and agreeable canopy, defending the young from the 

 sun and rain. There is sometimes a considerable difference 

 in the manufacture of these nests, as well as in the materials 

 which enter into their composition. Both sexes seem to be 

 equally adepts at this sort of labour, and I have seen the 

 female alone perform the whole without any assistance, and 

 the male also complete this laborious task nearly without 

 the aid of his consort; who, however, in gener-al, is the 

 principal worker. I have observed a nest made almost 

 wholly of tow, which wus laid out for the convenience >f » 



