THE TRAGEDIES OP THE NESTS. 75 



the interior ; but by some unlucky move it got its 

 wings entangled in this same fatal horse-hair. Its 

 efforts to free itself appeared only to result in its 

 being more securely and hopelessly bound ; and there 

 it perished ; and there its form, dried and embalmed 

 by the summer heats, was yet hanging in September, 

 the outspread wings and plumage showing nearly as 

 bright as in life. 



A correspondent writes me that one of his orioles 

 got entangled in a cord while building her nest, and 

 that though by the aid of a ladder he reached and 

 liberated her, she died soon afterward. He also 

 found a " chippie " (called also " hair bird ") sus- 

 pended from a branch by a horse-hair, beneath a 

 partly-constructed nest. I heard of a cedar-bird 

 caught and destroyed in the same way, and of two 

 young bluebirds, around whose legs a horse-hair had 

 become so tightly wound that the legs withered up 

 and dropped off. The birds became fledged, and 

 finally left the nest with the others. Such tragedies 

 are probably quite common. 



Before the advent of civilization in this country, the 

 oriole probably built a much deeper nest than it usu- 

 ally does at present. When now it builds in remote 

 trees and along the borders of the woods, its nest, I 

 have noticed, is long and gourd-shaped ; but in or- 

 chards and near dwellings it is only a deep cup or 

 pouch. It shortens it up in proportion as the danger 

 lessens. Probably a succession of disastrous years, like 

 the one under review, would cause it to lengthen it 



