296 BLACKBIRDS, ORIOLES, ETC. 



most skillfully wrought nests a bird ever made, a perfect basket, 

 hung by the handle to the drooping bayonets in such a way that the 

 sharp points protected it and yet left the bird an easy entrance. The 

 nest was made of yucca fiber, decorative touches being given by bits 

 of gray moss stuck on here and there. 



505 a. Icterus cucullatus nelsoni Ridgw. ARIZONA HOODED 



ORIOLE. 



Adult male. Plumage yellow, except for black of oval throat patch, 

 fore part of back, wings, and tail, white bars and edgings of wings, and 

 tip of tail. Adult female : plain yellow below ; olive 

 green above, washed with gray on back ; wings 

 brownish with two white bands and whitish edgings 

 to quills. Young males in second year : like adult 

 females, but throat patch as in males. Young in 

 first year: like adult female, but colors duller, 

 plumage especially on upper parts suffused with 

 Fig. 363. ' brownish. Male : length (skins) 6.90-7.80, wing 



3.40-3.56, tail 3.22-3.78, bill .82-87. Female: 

 length (skins) 6.90-7.30, wing 3.18-3.26, tail 3.17-3.28, bill .7S-.82. 



Distribution, Breeds from Tepic, western Mexico, and Lower Califor- 

 nia north to southwestern New Mexico, Arizona, and through the southern 

 half of California west of the Sierra Nevada. 



Nest. Cup-shaped, semipensile or securely attached to twigs on sides, 

 woven of materials like fresh wiry grass and yucca fibers, and placed in 

 such trees as sycamores, oaks, blue gums, figs, and palms ; usually made 

 of Spanish moss, often built in tufts of moss. Eggs : 3 to 5, speckled with 

 hair brown and with zigzag' markings. 



Food. Insects and larvae, including hairless caterpillars and small 

 grasshoppers. 



In southern California towns nelsoni nests familiarly in fan palms 

 on the streets, but in the country he affects the chaparral, coming 

 into sight only as he 'makes short sallies into the air or dashes past 

 you from one section of brush to another. 



He sings when out of sight, but the song is delivered with such 

 fervor that you can follow him by it when he is invisible. It is a 

 typical oriole song, a clear whistle with a rhythmic rise and fall, 

 and a chatter interposed between the high and low notes that sounds 

 as if he were taking breath. His mate is a quasi-musician, giving 

 his chatter and the first strain of his song. 



In southern Arizona, where nelsoni is most abundant, Major Ben- 

 dire says that its favorite haunts are dense, shady groves of cotton- 

 woods and mesquites in the creek bottoms. 



506. Icterus spurius (Linn.). ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



Adult male in spring and summer. Black except for dark chestnut belly, 

 shoulders, and hinder part of back ; brown and whitish edgings of wings, 

 and light tip to tail. Adult male in fall and winter : like summer male, 

 but feathers of scapulars, interscapulars, and sometimes head and neck, 

 edged with buffy gray, olive, or chestnut j those of under parts sometimes 



