14 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIKDS. 



has spied a crawling insect, and again flies towards the blos- 

 soms, in which many are lurking, and devours hundreds of 

 them each day ; thus contributing to secure to the farmer the 

 hopes which he has of the productiveness of his orchard. 



" The arrival of the females is marked with all due regard, 

 and the males immediately use every effort in their power to 

 procure from them a return of attention. Their singings and 

 tricks are performed with redoubled ardor, until they are 

 paired, when nidification is attended to with the utmost ac- 

 tivity. They resort to the meadows, or search along the 

 fences for the finest, longest, and toughest grasses they can 

 find, and having previously fixed on a spot, either on an 

 apple-tree, or amidst the drooping branches of the weeping- 

 willow, they begin by attaching the grass firmly and neatly 

 to the twigs more immediately around the chosen place. 

 The filaments are twisted, passed over and under, and inter- 

 woven in such a manner as to defy the eye of a man to fol- 

 low their windings. All this is done by the bill of the bird, 

 in the manner used by the Baltimore Oriole. The nest is of 

 a hemispherical form, and is supported by the margin only. 

 It seldom exceeds three or four inches in depth, is open al- 

 most to the full extent of its largest diameter at the top or 

 entrance, and finished on all sides, as well as within, with 

 the long slender grasses already mentioned. Some of these 

 go round the nest several times, as if coarsely woven together. 

 This is the manner in which the nest is constructed in Lou- 

 isiana : in the Middle Districts it is usually lined with soft 

 and warm materials." 



On the whole, in this instance, we like the Southern Par- 

 son best ; for, in addition to being quite as facetious and lov- 

 ing as Master Rob, he proves to be a much better citizen ; 

 for his admirers, instead of having their sense of propriety 

 shocked, in seeing him turn wholesale plunderer, are told of 

 his " contributing to secure to the farmer his hopes of the 

 productiveness of his orchard." 



"We would advise all ironside philosophers, catechism in 



