94 



SINGING BIRDS. 



northern migrations, like those of the Baltimore bird, are per- 

 formed by day, and that the males arrive a week or ten days 

 sooner than their mates. They appear to affect the elevated 

 and airy regions of the Alleghany mountains, where they are 

 much more numerous than the Baltimore. 



The Orchard Oriole is an exceedingly active, sprightly, and 

 restless bird ; in the same instant almost, he is on the ground 

 after some fallen insect, fluttering amidst the foliage of the 

 trees, prying and springing after his lurking prey, or flying and 

 tuning his lively notes in a manner so hurried, rapid, and 

 seemingly confused that the ear is scarce able to thread out 

 the shrill and lively tones of his agitated ditty. Between these 

 hurried attempts he also gives others, which are distinct and 

 agreeable, and not unlike the sweet warble of the Red-Breasted 

 Grosbeak, though more brief and less varied. In choosing the 

 situation of his nest he is equally familiar with the Baltimore 

 Oriole, and seems to enjoy the general society of his species, 

 suspending his most ingenious and pensile fabric from the 

 bending twig of the apple-tree, which, like the nest of the 

 other, is constructed in the form of a pouch from three to five 

 inches in depth, according to the strength or flexibility of the 

 tree on which he labors ; so that in a weeping-willow, according 

 to Wilson, the nest is one or two inches deeper than if in an 

 apple-tree, to obviate the danger of throwing out the eggs and 

 young by the sweep of the long, pendulous branches. It is 

 likewise slighter, as the crowding leaves of that tree afford a 

 natural shelter of considerable thickness. That economy of 

 this kind should be studied by the Orchard Oriole will scarcely 

 surprise so much as the laborious ingenuity and beautiful tissue 

 of its nest. It is made exterioriy of a fine woven mat of long, 

 tough, and flexible grass, as if darned with a needle. The 

 form is hemispherical, and the inside is lined with downy 

 substances, — sometimes the wool of the seeds of the Button- 

 ^vood, — forming thus a commodious and soft bed for the young. 

 This precaution of a warm lining, as in the preceding species, 

 is, according to Audubon, dispensed with in the warm climate 

 of Louisiana. The eggs are 4 or 5, of a very pale bluish 



