THE OOLOGIST. 



197 



ils which some situations present; and I 

 presume that as a rule their nests suf- 

 fer more from strong wind and violent 

 storms, from not being, I ventui-e to 

 say, as securely fastened. Allow me 

 t ) illustrate this assertion by the nest 

 of a young pair of Orchard Orioles. 

 They were evidently young of the pre- 

 vious year, and this being their tirst ex- 

 perience in nesting, it presents many 

 interesting points. 



It was a beautifully woven Ijasket, 

 placed in the iippermost branches of a 

 slender willow, apparently unexcelled 

 in workmanship, but coarser in com- 



position than any otiier nest of this 

 species that I ever saw; and prcjpor- 

 tionaly much shallower than nests of 

 older birds placed in such slender trees 

 prove to be. However, they neglected 

 one thing of vital importance, they over- 

 looked the fastenings and the day I 

 first beheld it, (June 21, 1836) it was no 

 longer a place of safety. Ere long 

 their work would have bt-en in vain for 

 then the eggs found barely room in the 

 partly overturned nest. 



The nest, now before me, shows no 

 trace of having been fastened in any 

 way, although there was a few straws 



NEST AND EGGS OF J'ARJH HAWK. 



Avhich held it in place until the weight 

 of the bird, during a strong wind, had 

 broken them asunder on one side. The 

 material was so much coarser that any- 

 one accustomed to seeing nests of the 

 Orchard Oriole would have noticed it 

 at once, in fact, more than half of it is 

 composed of coarse grass while all 

 other nests to which I have access are 

 composed, almost exclusively, of fine 

 sedges of the genus Eleocharis and fine 

 grass blades. Furthermore it proves to 

 be the only true basket-shaped nest 



among them, and accurate measupiug 

 resulted as follows: 



Diameter, outside, 3.35 x 4.25; inside, 

 2.75 X 1.76. Depth, outside, 3.00; in- 

 side, 2.50. The bottom is almost per- 

 fectly flat and measures 2.75 x 2.50 

 inches. 



The nest mentioned in my article of 

 September as being found in an odd 

 place, was constructed by a pair in full 

 dress, and is composed of a selection of 

 very small sedge and grass blades vary- 

 ing from .02 to .07 of an inch in width 



