THE ORIOLE BRANCH 109 
white bars. His mate is yellowish below and 
olive brown above. 
This bird makes the regular oriole family 
cradle. Sometimes it swings free like the Balti- 
more’s, but not always. It is made of slender, 
wiry grass, which is green, so that it is hard to 
see. Sometimes a sort of thread from the edge 
of palm leaves is used. 
This bird sometimes selects a droll place for 
her nest. She swings it from the under side of a 
palm or banana leaf. You know a banana leaf 
is long and wide, and makes a comfortable shade 
in a hot day ; and it does just as well for an um- 
brella when it rains. It is hard to see how a bird 
can fasten a nest to a smooth leaf. But Mrs. 
Grinnell has seen it done in her own yard, and 
she tells us how the little builder goes to work. 
First she takes a thread in her beak and 
pushes it through the leaf, making a hole, of 
course. Then she flies around to the other side 
of the broad leaf, and standing there a minute 
she pulls the thread through, and pushes it back, 
making another hole. Thus she goes on, flying 
from one side to the other till she has sewed her 
bag to the strong leaf. 
Except in the place they choose for their nest, 
these orioles are about the same as their Eastern 
cousins, and oriole little folk are the same the 
world over, I think. 
