26 INTRODUCTION. 
The Oriole weaves a neat little bag of bark, fine grass 
and wool, often strengthened with pieces or string or 
horse-hair, and hangs it from the twigs of some waving 
bough, which rocks to and froin the wind, and there 
in the midst of a storm which would demolish a struc- 
ture of greater weight and firmness, she sits at her 
ease, under the protection of Him, “ without whose 
notice not a sparrow falleth to the ground.” The 
White-eyed Vireo, whose nest is in the shape of an 
inverted cone, suspends it from the circling stems of 
arunning vine. The Whip-poor-will and the Chuck- 
wills-widow merely scrape away the leaves near some 
prostrate log, or among the thick undergrowth of the 
forest, and lay their eggs upon the bare ground; but 
so nearly does their color resemble that of the leaves 
and earth, that it is almost impossible to discover 
them unless their concealment is betrayed by the 
flight of the bird. 
The number of eggs deposited in a nest varies 
greatly. The Whip-poor-will lays two, the Partridge 
from fifteen to twenty-four. The color also varies 
much in the different species; some are of a deep 
and beautiful blue, others as wnite as snow; some 
are marked with irregular blotches near the great 
end, or spotted thickly all over with brown on a yel- 
lowish or light olive-colored ground; but perhaps 
the most common color is one uniform speckled mix- 
ture of various shades of gray. Mostly but one 
brood is raised in a season, but frequently two, and 
with those birds which arrive early sometimes three. 
