THE BULLOCK ORIOLE. 



51 



settled at the beginning of tlie season, hut 

 ry is chiefl\- between the under-colored 

 \g blades who must make their peace 

 the sweet girl graduates of the pre- 

 ■^ year. Orioles are very closely at- 

 .■d to a suitable locality, once chosen, 

 a group of nests in a single tree pre- 

 senting successive annual stages of 

 preservation, is fairly eloquent of 

 conjugal fidelit}-. 



The purse-shaped nest of the 

 Bullock Oriole is a niar\el nf indus- 

 trv and skill, fulh' e(|ual in these 

 respects tO' that nf the Baltimore 

 Bird. A specimen before me, from 

 a small willow on Crab Creek, in 

 Lincoln County, taken just after its 

 completion, is comi>osed entirely of 

 \egetable fibers, the frayed inner 

 bark of dead willows being chiefly 

 in evidence, while plant-downs of 

 willow, poplar, and clematis are 

 felted into the interstices of the 

 lower portion. This pouch is lashed at the brim by a hundred tiny cables to 

 the sustaining twigs, and hangs to a depth of six inches, with a mean diameter 

 of nearly three, yet so delicate are the materials and *o fine the workmanship. 

 that the whole structure weighs less than half an ounce. 



A more bulky, loose-meshed afifair, taken at Brook Lake No. 4. in 

 Douglas County, has a maximum depth of nine inches outside, a mean depth 

 of six and a half inches inside, and a greater diameter of five inches. 



Xear farm houses or in town the birds soon learn the value of string. 

 thread, frayed rope, and other waste materials, and nests are made entirely 

 of these less romantic substances. Occasionally a bird becomes entangled in 

 the coils of a refractory piece of string or horse-hair, and tragedies of Orioles 

 hanged at their own doorstep are of record. 



The eggs of this species, four to six in number, are. usualb of a pale 

 smoky gray color, and upon this ground ajipear curious and intricate scrawl- 

 ings of purplish black, as tho made by a fine pen, held unsteadilv while the 

 egg was twirled. The purpose of this bizarre ornamentation, if indeed it 

 has any, may l)c thought to ajipear where scantv coils of black horse-hair in 

 the lining of the nest show \\\) in high relief against the noriual white back- 



ir Sfokane. Pholo by F. S. Mc 



FK.M.M.K. m-l.I.OCK OUIOLE. 



