BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 259 



is obliged to enter from below and climb up the hollow shaft, as 

 is the case with some of the African weaver birds. The sub- 

 stances of which the nest is made are long vegetable fibres and 

 slender grasses, and the manner in which these simple materials 

 are woven into so beautiful a nest is remarkably ingenious, and 

 may challenge comparison with the architecture of any other bird. 

 The Azure Ccereba is a small bird, about the size of our spar- 

 row, but with a long, slender, and slightly-curved beak, as is most- 

 ly the case with the large and important family to which it be- 

 longs. It feeds chiefly on insects, and may be seen busily en- 

 gaged among the flowers of its native land, flitting from one blos- 

 som to another, and daintily extracting the minute insects that en- 

 deavor to conceal themselves within the recesses of the petals. 



Still keeping to America, we may see more examples of pen- 

 sile nests. Two differently -shaped specimens are given in the 

 following illustration, in order that they may be compared with 

 each other. 



The first in order is that of the Baltimore Oriole ( Tphanies 

 Baltimore), a pretty bird, colored with orange and black in bold 

 contrast to each other. Its name is derived, not from any partic- 

 ular locality, but from the orange and black of its plumage, those 

 being the heraldic colors of Lord Baltimore, formerly proprietor 

 of Baltimore. It does not receive the full coloring until its third 

 year, the orange hues being simply yellow at the end of the sec- 

 ond year, and having no red in them until the last moult is com- 

 pleted. So far, indeed, is it from belonging to any particular lo- 

 cality, that it is spread over a very wide range of country, inhab- 

 iting the whole of America from Canada to Brazil. The Balti- 

 more Oriole goes by many names ; some, such as Golden Robin 

 and Firebird, being in allusion to its plumage, and others, such 

 as Hang-nest and Hanging Bird, from the beautiful pensile nest 

 which it makes. 



The general shape of these nests is much the same in every 

 specimen, and a good idea of it may be formed from the illustra- 

 tion, which was taken from a nest in my own possession. It is 

 always pensile, and is hung by the rim to the under side of some 

 slender bough, usually at a considerable elevation from the ground. 

 It is almost entirely made of vegetable fibres, and is so strongly 

 constructed that, although it had been knocked about for some 

 years in the neglected spot whence I rescued it, and was once 



