MAY BIRDS. 49 



would suggest to any of my readers who 

 may care to make the experiment that 

 bright-colored yarn left in an exposed 

 place in the yard would probably result in 

 a brilliant and variegated hang-bird's nest 

 in the elm-tree before the house. Besides 

 the rich, liquid whistles common to both 

 sexes, and heard at all hours of the day, 

 the male oriole possesses a beautiful, pro- 

 tracted warble, which he pours forth gen- 

 erally in the early morning. One of the 

 most remarkable things about the bird is 

 its disappearance about the last of July 

 and its subsequent return towards the last 

 of August, just previous to its departure 

 for the South, when its whistles are again 

 heard for a few days. 



Almost the first song to be heard in 

 the woods, at all hours of the day, is the 

 highly accentuated crescendo of the oven- 

 bird (seiurus atirocapillus). The oven-bird, 

 formerly called the golden-crowned thrush, 

 but now relegated to the family of warblers, 

 is one of the commonest of our woodland 

 birds. It derives its name from its oven- 

 4 



