ICTERUS GALBULA : BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 305 



some of the further parts. It is faunally Alleghanian, 

 though decidedly overlapping the Canadian. The re- 

 turn movement is accomplished in September, for the 

 Ictcridce, with some notable exceptions, are birds of 

 warm countries, the Oriole section particularly ; and 

 the two brilliant species which reach New England 

 are unfitted to endure cold weather. 



Though so bright and beautiful a bird in person, 

 the interest which the Baltimore never fails to excite 

 centres, after all, in the masterpiece of workmanship 

 which his clever bill, like a needle with the eye at the 

 point, suspends for our admiration from the drooping 

 bough of the elm tree, under a canopy of tremulous 

 foliage. It is more purse-like or deeply pouched than 

 any other of our nests, and one of the most perfectly 

 pensile of all. Much as we may wonder at the close 

 texture of the finished fabric, as a piece of weaving, 

 our surprise may be still greater that the clever crafts- 

 men can contrive to set the first few fibres at all on a 

 loom so primitive as that represented by the slender 

 twigs to which they are attached. The materials em- 

 ployed are of the most miscellaneous character, pliable 

 grasses and other plant-strips being usually mixed 

 with strings or scraps of substances already spun or 

 woven by the art of man. As may be supposed, so 

 elaborate a fabric is not the work of a day or two, but 

 may require a week or more. The finished affair is 

 usually six or eight inches deep, but much less in 

 breadth, and somewhat contracted at the mouth, or 

 pursed out below ; it is warmly lined with the softest 

 vegetable substances or with hairs. Thus out of the 

 reach of ordinary dangers, and assiduously nurtured 

 by their devoted parents, the baby Baltimores rock 



