A SNORT STUDY OF BIRDS' NESTS. 133 



built three nests in the immediate vicinity, and had no 

 trouble in finding as much long grass, hair, and bits of 

 twine as they needed. 



The nest of the orchard orioles made of pine-needles 

 was rebuilt in the pine-tree in precisely the same man- 

 ner in 1878 and in 1879. In 1880 two such nests were 

 built. In 1876 and 1877 the nests were built in apple- 

 trees near by, and pine-needles were used. Why the 

 pine-tree was deserted for two years is to be explained 

 by the fact that, in those years, a colony of purple grakles 

 occupied that and the adjoining trees during the nesting 

 season ; and, considering the noise they made, night and 

 day, it is scarcely to be wondered at that the orioles should 

 seek other localities for their summer home. The grakles 

 did not appear in 1878 and 1879, so the orioles again had 

 the pine to themselves while nesting. In 1881 and the 

 past summer, 1882, the grakles were back, and no orioles 

 nested in the pine ; but I found a nest of theirs in a pear- 

 tree near by, and this, like all the others, was made almost 

 wholly of pine-needles. 



The present nesting-habits of the chimney-swallow 

 are worthy of some consideration, in connection with the 

 subject of variation in the nidih'cation of birds. It 

 may be laid down as a fixed habit of this bird, that, at 

 present, it constructs its nest only in chimneys. The ex- 

 ceptional cases that have been mentioned recently are too 

 few to render qualification of this statement necessary. 

 Now, as chimneys have been available less than three 

 centuries, where, prior to this, were the nests of this bird 

 placed? Peter Kalm says of these birds, writing one 

 hundred and thirty years ago : " They derive their name 

 from nests built in chimneys which are not made use of 

 in summer : sometimes, when the smoke is not very great, 



