98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 
which may be heard at a long distance, did not attract attention. 
In the woods, tho Oriole generally builds in some tall elm or gigantie 
button-wood tree; bué their singular nests are occasionally found in 
our orchards, suspended from the extremities of the branches of the 
apple or the pear. The nest is woven, as you all probably know, in 
_the shape of a purse or bag, and is generally attached to two or 
-more forked twigs by threads of the silk weed, or tibres of other 
wild plants, and not unfrequently when they can obtain them by 
pieces of string or thread, which the bird picks up near the neigh- 
bouring houses. With the same materials mixed with hair, wool 
or tow, it interweaves a warm and substantial fabric of nearly six 
or seven inches in depth, the bottom part being lined with horse hair. 
The White Browed Crown Sparrow, Zonotrichia Leucophrys, and 
the White Throated Crown Sparrow, Zonotrichia Albicollis, both 
arrive in May. The singularly sweet notes of the latter bird must 
‘be well known to all observers. I have observed that they are 
generally most musical immediately before rain or during the fre- 
quent showers of the early part of the season. 
Any one strolling through the meadows or near the margin of some 
stream or reedy pond during the latter part of May, will often hear 
an outburst of the most curious, jingling, joyous, laughable medley 
of a song that any bird throat ever uttered, and if he catches sight 
of the singer he will see it nodding its head, quivering its wings and 
with open mouth rattling out its curious notes as if its very life 
depended on it; this is the Bobolink Reed Bird or Rice Bunting, 
Dolichonyx Oryzivorus. Its plumage is almost as curious as its 
song, a mixture of black, white and yellow, disposed in a sort of 
piebald fashion over the body. 
- Much about the same period of the month a very different song 
may be heard, no one who has listened to it as from the topmost 
twig of some tall oak on some fine May morning, the singer pours 
forth its sweet cadences so full of melody, but will forever scout the 
assertion so often made by those who know little of our Canadian 
birds that they are destitute of song. It is the Ferruginous Thrush 
or Brown Thrasher as it is sometimes called Harporynchus Rufus, 
that-is filling the air with melody, and in my judgment, except 
the Skylark and Nightingale of Europe, there are few birds whose 
vocal powers can compare with this thrush. If we desire a strong 
contrast we can have it in the harsh cry of another summer visitor 
