242 THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



once begun, he is one of the quietest of birds and remains 

 so till after the moult, during which event he is rarely to 

 be seen; then returning to the vicinity of the late nesting 

 place in the orchard or grove, he will be almost as gay, and 

 sprightly, and musical, in the midst of his full-grown family, 

 now making ready to depart for some more genial clime, as 

 he was in the hilarious days of the nuptial season. 



A very "castle in the air" is the Baltimore's pensile nest, 

 as it sways and rocks on an elastic branch of some tree, in 

 the front-yard, the orchard, the grove or the forest. In this 

 locality a partiality is shown for the graceful drooping 

 branches of the elm. Wherever placed, it seldom fails to be 

 under a canopy of leaves. Generally in the form of a bag 

 some six or seven inches deep, round at the bottom, and 

 hung to slender fork-shaped limbs by the edges, the limbs 

 thus serving to hold it open, it is the most noticeable bird's 

 nest in field or forest. The material is almost anything in 

 the form of long strips or threads that can be easily woven 

 thin, gray, -vegetable fibers, yarn, twine, interlaced in every 

 possible manner, and well sewed together with horse-hair. 

 The walls are so thin and open as to let the air through 

 readily. The bottom is a thick cushion of vegetable down 

 and hair. A gentleman in Pennsylvania once hung out 

 bright and various colored zephyrs, which the bird wove into 

 a most brilliant and fantastic fabric. Says Wilson: "So 

 solicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper materials for 

 his nest that, in the season of building, the women in the 

 country are under necessity of narrowly watching their 

 thread that may chance to be out bleaching, and the farmer 

 to secure his young grafts; as the Baltimore, finding the 

 .former, and the strings which tie the latter, so well adapted 

 for his purpose, frequently carries off both; or should the 

 one be too heavy, and the other too firmly tied, he will tug 



