SCOTT'S ORIOLE. 473 



sun is at its highest, and during- the great heat of the afternoon, its very musical 

 whistle is one of the few bird songs that are ever present." 



Their food consists mainly of grasshoppers, small beetles, caterpillars, but- 

 terflies, larvae, etc., as well as of berries and fruits. In Suharita Pass, between 

 the Santa Catalina and Rincon mountains, near Tucson. Arizona I have seen 

 them eating - the ripe fig-like fruit of the giant cactus. 



I found my first occupied nest of Scott's Oriole on June 4, 1872, on the 

 dry plains southeast of my camp on Rillito Creek, fully 3 miles from the nearest 

 water. I had previously observed some old nests attached to the tops of some 

 tall tree yuccas, and passing a clump of these at this time, I noticed a fresh 

 nest fastened to the leaves of one of the tallest trees. It was placed fully 

 10 feet front the ground, and the only way I could reach it was to stand on 

 my horse, which I did, and secured the eggs, three in number, in which incu- 

 bation had commenced. The nest was so securely fastened to the surrounding 

 bayonet-shaped leaves that I could not pull it away, and only succeeded in cut- 

 ting my hand severely in trying to do so. The nest was composed of yucca 

 fibers, sacaton, and grama grass, and lined with a little horsehair. The upper 

 rirn of the nest was not contracted, and it was a strong, well-built structure. 



A well-preserved nest, now before me, taken by Dr. A. K. Fisher, United 

 States Department of Agriculture, near Shepherd's Canyon, Coso Valley, Cali- 

 fornia, on May 11, 1891, was situated on the under side of a horizontal limb of 

 a giant yucca (Yucca arborescens), about 6 feet from the ground. The edges 

 of the leaves to which the nest was attached were hacked and lacerated so as 

 to receive the threads and horsehair suspending it. The structure itself is sub- 

 stantially built of green grass and dry yucca fiber, and it is lined with finer 

 hemp-like materials from the core of this plant. The walls and bottom of the 

 nest are far thicker than in most Orioles' nests. Externally the nest measures 

 3 £ inches in depth by 5 inches in its longer diameter and 4 inches at the nar- 

 rowest point. The inner cup is oval in shape, 2£ inches deep and 3f by 3 inches 

 wide. This nest, when first found, on May 7, contained two eggs; on a subse- 

 quent visit, May 11, they had disappeared, and the nest was partly pulled down. 



Capt. W. L. Carpenter, United States Army, found a nest and two eggs of 

 this species near Prescott, Arizona, on May 22, 1891, in a low, bushy pine, about 

 8 feet from the ground, fastened securely to a lot of pine needles among which 

 it was built; while Mr. O. P. Wilcox found another, on June 28, 1892, containing 

 three eggs, suspended from a limb of a small oak, near Fort Huachuca, Arizona. 



While the different kinds of large tree yuccas unquestionably furnish the 

 favorite nesting sites for this species within the borders of the United States, low 

 trees of other species, as already stated, including- junipers, are also used to a 

 considerable extent. In Lower California, according to Mr. A. W. Anthony, it 

 nests also in the thorny branches of the candlewood (Fouquiera columnaris), and 

 Mr. Xantus reports it breeding there in bunches of moss and in hop and other 

 vines suspended from cacti. He mentions finding- one nest in a bunch of weeds 

 growing out of a crevice in a perpendicular rock. According to Mr. L. Belding, 

 it is known as the Mountain Oriole in Lower California. 



