278 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



from water. Several were sewed to the edge of dead leaves, which, 

 hanging down parallel to the trunks of the plant, entirely concealed 

 the nest. These were semi-pensile, and composed externally of fibres 

 of the yucca, fine grasses, cotton-waste, twine and batting, lined with 

 fine grasses and cotton-waste throughout. A fifth nest, taken July i, 

 was built in a sycamore tree about eighteen feet from the ground. 

 Pensile, being attached to the ends of the twigs very much like that of 

 a Baltimore Oriole. 



The nests contained three and four eggs each. The sizes of one 

 set of four, taken May 27, are given as follows: .96X.68, .98X.66, 

 .92 X .68, .96 X .68 ; another set of four, taken May 30, exhibit the fol- 

 lowing respective measurements : i.oix.72, 1.02 x. 70, .97X.70, 1.02 x 

 .73, The eggs are usually four in number, of a dull white, with a 

 bluish tint variously marked with small blotches and fine dottings of 

 purplish-brown, approaching black ; in some are found the zigzag 

 markings common to the eggs of the Orioles. 



505. Icterus cucullatus Swains. [269.] 



Hooded Oriole. 



Hab. Valley of the Lower Rio Grande in Texas, south through Eastern and Southern Mexico. 



According to Dr. James C. Merrill and Mr. George B. Sennett, 

 this is the most abundant of all the Orioles on the Lower Rio Grande 

 in Texas. Its home is in the woods or the edges of forests and groves, 

 where the trees are hung with pendant tresses of Spanish moss, in 

 which the nests are built. These, Dr. Merrill saj^s, are perfectly char- 

 acteristic, being most frequently built in a bunch of the hanging moss, 

 usually at no great distance from the ground; when so placed, the 

 nests are formed almost entirely by hollowing out and matting 

 together the moss with a few filaments of dark, hair-like moss as a 

 lining. Another situation is in a bush growing to a height of about 

 six feet, with bare stems, throwing out irregular masses of leaves at 

 the top which conceal the nest. A few pairs build in the Spanish bay- 

 onets that grow on sand ridges in the salt prairies ; here the nests are 

 built chiefly of the dry, tough fibres of the plant, with a little wool or 

 thistle-down as lining ; they are placed among the dead and depressed 

 leaves, two or three of which are used as supports. 



The eggs are three to five in number, white, with a bluish tinge, 

 or buff, marked with hieroglyphics and pencilings common to the eggs 

 of this family, but not so abundant. These markings are usually 

 brown, but, when profuse, black and lilac shades appear. The larger 

 end is never free from markings, and is frequently covered with them, 

 but more commonly displays them in the form of a band. Dr. Merrill 



