2S2 THE ORIOLE. 



pointed, and black towards the extremity ; iris of the eye 

 hazel, pupil black. The young male of the first season cor- 

 responds nearly with the above description. But in the suc- 

 ceeding spring he makes his appearance with a large patch 

 of black marking the front, lores and throat. In this stage, 

 too, the black sometimes makes its appearance on the two 

 middle feathers of the tail ; and slight stains of reddish are 

 seen commencing on the sides and belly. The rest of the 

 plumage as in the female. This continuing nearly the same 

 on the same bird during the remainder of the season. 



I have said that these birds construct their nests very dif- 

 ferent from the Baltimores. They are so particularly fond 

 of frequenting orchards,, that scarcely one orchard in summer 

 is without them. They usually suspend their nest from the 

 twigs of the apple tree ; and often from the extremities of the 

 outward branches. It is formed exteriorly of a particular 

 species of long, tough and flexible grass, knit or sewed through 

 and through in a thousand directions, as if actually done 

 with a needle. An old lady of my acquaintance, to whom I 

 was one day showing this curious fabrication, after admiring 

 its texture for some time, asked me in a tone between joke 

 and earnest, whether I did not think it possible to learn these 

 birds to darn stockings. This nest is hemispherical, three 

 inches deep by four in breadth ; the concavity scarcely two 

 inches deep by two in diameter. I had the curiosity to detach 

 one of the fibres, or stalks, of dried grass from the nest, and 

 found it to measure thirteen inches in length, and in that dis- 

 tance was thirty-four times hooked through and returned, 

 winding round and round the nest ! The inside is usually 

 composed of wool, or the light downy appendages attached 

 to the seeds of the Platanus octidentalis, or button-wood, 

 which form a very soft and commodious bed. Here and there 

 the outward work is extended to an adjoining twig, round 

 which it is strongly twisted, to give more stability to the 

 whole, and prevent it from being overset by the wind. 



When they choose the long pendent branches of the weep 

 ing-willow to build in, as they frequently do, the nest, though 



