6 SCOTT oh tie Breeding Habits of Scott's Oriole. [ January 



sycamore overhanging the wood road before mentioned, and 

 about forty yards from water. It differs greatly from any of the 

 others, as the appended notes show. 



"Nest of July i. Built in a sycamore tree, about eighteen 

 feet from the ground. Pensile, being attached to the ends of 

 the twigs. It is composed externally entirely of the libers of 

 dead yucca leaves, and there are hanging to and built into the 

 walls four rather small dead leaves of this plant, that are partly 

 frayed, so that the liber is used in weaving them into the structure. 

 The interior is lined with soft line grasses, and only two or three 

 shreds of cotton-waste appear here and there in the lining. The 

 walls vary from a quarter to half an inch in thickness. The 

 whole structure is very symmetrical and is a half sphere in shape. 

 Inside the greatest depth is two and a half and the greatest 

 diameter four inches. The entire set of eggs was laid, as the 

 nest had been watched for a number of days ; and the female was 

 killed, when the nest was taken, and dissected. Three eggs 

 compose the set. and differ from those already described only 

 in being of a deeper bluish-white ground-color. They measure 

 .SS X .72. .9S X .70, .90 X .74, being therefore rather rounder 

 in general outline than any of the other sets. This nest is 

 attached to the twigs from which it hangs very much like that 

 of a Baltimore Oriole {Icterus baltimore)." 



Ven minutes' walk from the house would have reached any of 

 these five nests, and three of them were within a hundred and 

 fifty yards of one another. 



The first young that I met with, that had left the nest, were 

 seen on July 2. and on July 4 I saw many fully fledged, and 

 apparently shifting for themselves. The following note is dated 

 July 24: "Young males, fully fledged, evidently of the first 

 brood, were singing very softly." "A young male taken, begin- 

 ing to moult from 'first' plumage ; the first noted in this condi- 

 tion."' 



The species here is a very common one. and it seems possible 

 that alter a few years' association with houses and people it ma\ 

 no longer be the shy, suspicious bird of the* present, but become 

 as familiar as others of the genus have. On their first arrival 

 they were constantly in the oaks overhanging the house, and 

 only seemed alarmed if too closelv observed. 



That they do not always build in the yuccas, though doubtless 

 that is the favorite nesting place, the nest of July 1 proves, and I 



