NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



riously marked with small blotches and fine dottings of purplish-brown, 

 approaching black ; in some are found the zigzag markings common to the 

 eggs of the Oriole; they are usually four in number, size .92 by .65. 

 This bird is found in Southern Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and in South- 

 ern California, near the Mexican border. The nest is variously situated; 

 in a bunch of moss or vines hanging from an old cactus; in a bunch of 

 weeds or moss growing out from a crevice in a perpendicular rock. Dr. 

 W. E. D. Scott, on the breeding habits of some Arizona Birds in the Auk 

 for January, 1885, describes a series of five nests found by him in Pinal 

 county. All except one were placed in yucca plants about four feet from 

 the ground, and situated not far from water. • Several were sewed to the 

 edge of dead leaves, which, hanging down parallel to the trunks of the 

 plants, entirely concealed the nest. These were semi-pensile. Composed 

 externally of fibres of the yucca, fine grasses, cotton-waste, twine and bat- 

 ting; lined with fine grasses and cotton-waste throughout. A fifth nest 

 was built in a sycamore-tree about eighteen feet from the ground. Pensile 

 being attached to the ends of the twigs very much like that of a Baltimore 

 Oriole. The sizes of one set of eggs are given as follows: .96 by .68, .98 

 by .66, .92 by .68, .96 by .68. Paris Oriole and Black-and yellow Oriole 

 are two other names for this bird. 



269. Hooded Oriole — icterus cucullatus. White with bluish tinge, 

 marbled, blotched and dotted with large dashes and irregular zigzag lines 

 of purple, brown and black, chiefly at the larger end, usually five in num- 

 ber; average size of a large series of eggs is .82 by . 59. This is essentially 

 a Mexican species, although it also extends northward into Texas, New 

 Mexico, Arizona, and Southern California. Dr. Merrill found it to be 

 one of the most common in Southern Texas, in the vicinity of Fort Brown. 

 The nests, he says, are perfectly characteristic, being most frequently built 

 in a bunch of hanging moss, usually at no great distance from the ground; 

 when so placed, the nests are formed almost entirely by hollowing out and 

 matting together the moss with a few filaments of dark hair-like moss as a 

 lining. Another situation is in a bush growing to a height of about six 

 feet with bare stems, throwing out irregular masses of leaves at the top 

 which conceal the nest. He says a few pairs build in the yucca plants that 

 grow on sand ridges in the salt prairies; here the nests are built chiefly of 

 the dry, tough fibres of the plant with a little wool or thistle-down as lining; 

 they are placed among the dead and depressed leaves, two or three of 

 which are used as supports. To Mr. B. W. Evermann belongs the credit 

 of first finding this beautiful Oriole breeding farther north than anyone 

 before had found it. Dr. Cooper, who had given it more study than any 



