THE BALTIMORE STARLING. 77 



hung on the extremity of the horizontal branch of 

 an apple-tree, fronting the southeast, was visible 

 one hundred yards oft', though shaded by the sun, and 

 was the work of a very beautiful and perfect bird. 

 The eggs are five, white, slightly tinged with flesh- 

 colour, marked on the greater end with purple dots, 

 and on the other parts with long hairlike lines, in- 

 tersecting each other in a variety of directions. I 

 am thus minute in these particulars from a wish to 

 point out the specific difference between the true and 

 bastard Baltimore, which Dr. Latham and some 

 others suspect to be only the same bird in different 

 stages of colour. 



" So solicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper 

 materials for his nest, that, in the season of building, 

 the women in the country are under the necessity 

 of narrowly watching their thread that may chance to 

 be bleaching, and the farmer to secure his young 

 grafts, as the Baltimore, finding the former, and the 

 strings which tie the latter, so well adapted for his 

 purpose, frequently carries off both ; or should the 

 one be too heavy and the other too firmly tied, he 

 will tug at them a considerable time before he gives 

 up the attempt. Skeins of silk and hanks of thread 

 have been often found, after the leaves were fallen, 

 hanging round the Baltimore's nest, but so woven up 

 and entangled as to be entirely irreclaimable. Be- 

 fore the introduction of Europeans no such material 

 could have been obtained here ; but, with the saga- 

 city of a good architect, he has improved this cir- 

 cumstance to his advantage, and the strongest and 

 best materials are uniformly found in those parts by 

 which the whole is supported."* 



One of the prettiest of the woven nests is figured 

 and described by Vaillant in his splendid work on 

 African birds, though he is doubtful what species of 

 bird was the mechanic. The following is his ac- 

 count of this beautiful nest. 



* Wilson, Amer. Ornith., i., 26. 

 G 2 



