THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.” 849 
“There is nothing more remarkable in the whole instinct of our 
Golden Robin than the ingenuity displayed in the fabrication of its 
nest, which is, in fact, a pendulous, cylindric pouch of five to seven 
inches in depth, usually suspended from near the extremities of the 
high drooping branches of trees (such as the elm, the pear, or apple 
tree, wild cherry, weeping willow, tulip-tree, or buttonwood). It 
is begun by firmly fastening natural strings of the flax of the silk- 
weed, or swamp hollyhock, or stout artificial threads, around two or 
more forked twigs, corresponding to the intended width and depth 
of the nest. With the same materials, willow-down, or any acci- 
dental ravellings, strings, thread, sewing-silk, tow, or wool, that may 
be lying near the neighboring houses, or around grafts of trees, they 
snterweave and fabricate a sort of coarse cloth into the form in- 
tended, 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 interior with a mixture of slender strips of 
smooth vine-bark, and rarely with a few feathers; the whole being 
of a considerable thickness, and more or less attached to the exter- 
nal 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 labor; 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 general, is the principal worker.” 
The eggs are four or five in number. They are of a flesh- 
color, with sometimes a bluish tint: they are marked with 
obscure lines of lavender, over which are irregular scratches 
and lines, as if done with a pen, of vandyke-brown and 
black. Their dimensions vary from 1 by .72 to .88 by .66 
inch. The food of this bird, and also of the preceding 
species, consists of caterpillars and other injurious insects: 
great numbers of the hairy caterpillars are destroyed; and 
sometimes a large nest of the apple-tree caterpillars is de- 
populated in a few days. The Orioles are certainly, there- 
