98 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



which may be heard at a long distance, did not attract attention. 

 In the woods, tho Oriole generally builds in some tall elm or gigantic 

 button-wood tree ; hut their singular nests are occasionally found in 

 our orchards, suspended from the extremities of the branches of the 

 apple or the pear. The nest is woven, as you all probably know, in 

 the shape of a purse or bag, and is generally attached to two or 

 more forked twigs by threads of the silk weed, or fibres of other 

 wild plants, and not unfrequently when they can obtain them by 

 pieces of string or thread, which the bird picks up near the neigh- 

 bouring houses. With the same materials mixed with hair, wool 

 or tow, it interweaves a warm and substantial fabric of nearly six 

 or seven inches in depth, the bottom part being lined with horse hair. 



The White Browed Crown Sparrow, Zonotrichia Leucojyhrys, and 

 the White Throated Crown Sparrow,- Zonotrichia AlbicoUis, both 

 arrive in May. The singularly sweet notes of the latter bird must 

 be well known to all observers. I have observed that they are 

 generally most musical immediately before rain or during the fie- 

 quent showers of the early part of the season. 



Any one strolling through the meadows or near the margin of some 

 stream or reedy pond during the latter part of May, will often hear 

 an outburst of the most carious, jingling, joyous, laughable medley 

 of a song that any bird throat ever uttered, and if he catches sight 

 of the singer he will see it nodding its head, quivering its wings and 

 with open mouth rattling out its curious notes as if its very life 

 depended on it ; this is the Bobolink Reed Bird or Rice Bunting, 

 Dolichonyx Oryzivorus. Its plumage is almost as curious as its 

 song, a mixture of black, white and yellow, disposed in a sort of 

 piebald fashion over the body. 



Much about the same period of the month a very different song 

 may be heard, no one who has listened to it as from the topmost 

 twig of some tall oak on some fine May morning, the singer pours 

 forth its sweet cadences so full of melody, biit will forever scout the 

 assertion so often made by those who know little of our Canadian 

 birds that they are destitute of song. It is the FerruginoiTS Thrush 

 or Brown Thrasher as "it is sometimes called Earporynclius Rufus, 

 that is filling the air with melody, and in my judgment, except 

 the Skylark and Nightingale of Europe, there are few birds whose 

 vocal powers can compare with this thrush. If we desire a strong 

 contrast we can have it in the harsh cry of another summer visitor 



