DOUBLE NEST OF THE ORCHARD ORIOLE 
Rare and Curious Nests. 
N.No. x of ‘‘The Museum,’’- (1885), a 
paper published at one time in Phila- 
delphia,appeared an interesting article on 
“Rare and Curious Birds’ Nests,’ by Tho- 
mas G. Gentry. Doubtless few, if any, of 
our readers have read the article, and we 
here reproduce the illustrations for their 
benefit and quote from the text. 
From time immemorial, it has been the 
current popular belief that birds of the same 
species never varied their style of architec- 
ture, but constructed the same form of nest, 
and out of the same material, as their remot- 
est progenitors did, instinct being the prin- 
ciple by which they were guided. ‘This 
opinion, though long since exploded by 
science, is still, 1 am sorry to say, enter- 
tained by those who should know better. 
An examination of nests from different and 
widely separated localities affords evidence 
suficiant to convince the most skeptical of 
persons of its erroneousness. The most 
marked differences will be noticeabie in the 
composing materials, as his will be found 
to vary with the environment, and in a 
wider degree in the nests of some, than in 
those of other species. Even the configura- 
tion, which is less prone to change, is often 
influenced by the circumstances of position 
and latitude. 
Among the Thrushes, the Robin is the 
most addicted to variation, and this is not 
wholly confined to the constituents of his 
usually mud-plastered domicile, but is fre- 
quently to be observed in the arrangement 
thereof, and in the contour and position as 
well. In southern New Jersey, where low 
marshy woods abound on the outskirts of 
towns and villages.. Robins build nests 
which contrast most markedly with what 
we are accustomed to see in more northern 
localities. The great masses of a grayish- 
green fibrous lichen which hang from tree 
and shrub in those sylvan marshes, are 
freely utilized by them, and its very nature 
to mat, when pressed together, precludes 
the necessity of using mad. 
A remarkable nest of the Orchard Oriole 
was found upon a few small branches of a 
maple, at an elevation of nearly thirty feet 
from the ground. It was a double affair, 
composed of long, flexible grasses, and 
securely fastened to its support. The larger 
nest is inversely sub-conical, while the 
smaller, which is joined to the other by rib- 
bons of grass, is somewhat similarly shaped, 
but less compact in structure. A circular 
opening, one inch in diameter, is a notice- 
able feature of the latter. That this addi- 
tional structure served some purpose cannot 
be questioned. I am inclined to think that 
ee ae a es 
