THE OOLOGIST 



129 



solved the mystery and, if I have a 

 little time to put in in search for them, 

 I can find several sets each season. 



The haunts of this oriole are the 

 dense river hottom, thickets along 

 streams, or along dry creek heds 

 where the vegetation is heavier than 

 in the outlying country, or in the 

 heavy growth of small trees, hushes 

 and vines which fringe a low place 

 on higher ground where water settles 

 when it rains. It is not given to dis- 

 playing its colors in the tops of the 

 trees like some of the commoner 

 orioles and, in the nesting season, it 

 is more retiring and less often seen, 

 unless one is searching such places 

 for just such shy species. In each 

 favorable locality a pair may be ex- 

 pected to nest, but I have never found 

 two pairs nesting in close proximity. 

 There are large sections of country in 

 Texas within the range of this bird 

 where it cannot be found at all, hence 

 I would say that it is not a very com- 

 mon bird, and I know that its eggs 

 are rare, due both to the fact that the 

 birds are not more common and that 

 their nests are hard to find. 



The nesting season begins in April 

 usually but varies with the season. 

 The first nest that I ever found was in 

 the early part of April. It contained 

 a single young bird just hatched out. 

 In this case nest building must have 

 begun in the latter part of March, but 

 my records show that most of the 

 nests containing fresh eggs were found 

 in May, and June 2d is the latest date; 

 but I am inclined to think that the late 

 date was due to the fact that the birds 

 had been disturbed or their first nest 

 broken up and that this was a second 

 nest. If the birds succeed in raising 

 a br6od, I think they do not make a 

 second nest. 



One may stumble upon a nest of 

 this bird now and then with as much 

 ease as that o,f any other bird, but to 



search for them and find them is quite 

 another thing and requires a knowl- 

 edge of the habits of the bird and also 

 a knowledge of the kind of place the 

 bird is apt to select for its nest. My 

 plan is to look up the birds first. If 

 the date is right and a pair of birds 

 are observed, it is reasonable to ex- 

 pect that they have a nest somewhere 

 not far away; if a single bird is seen, 

 it indicates that the nest is completed 

 and that the female is quietly attend- 

 ing to her duties at the nest. If I find 

 two birds I watch them a few minutes. 

 If they linger about some one lo- 

 cality, and especially if they keep re- 

 turning to that locality when they have 

 retreated at your approach, the nest 

 can be found within a short radius of 

 where you think it is ; but even then it 

 may cause much search and scheming 

 on the part of the collector to find it, 

 as I shall show further on. In one in- 

 stance I located a nest a quarter of a 

 mile away by observing one of the 

 birds going to and returning from a 

 water-hole. This bird always went 

 back the same way and I was able 

 to follow it for some distance. A little 

 farther on I knew where there were 

 some spots that I felt were ideal 

 places for this bird to select, and in 

 one of them I found its nest. In 

 another instance I was aware of the 

 presence of the birds by the peculiar 

 whistle of one of them, given when I' 

 was some distance away, and, follow- 

 ing it up, I found one of the birds. 

 This bird was in the tall, moss-covered 

 tree in the wide bottom of the Rio 

 Grande about a mile back from the old 

 town of Hidalgo. At first I saw but 

 one bird, 1 watched it for some time 

 but with no results until I openly 

 came nearer and then it withdrew a 

 short distance but did not seem in- 

 clined to leave. As I moved about I 

 discovered a second bird. Several 

 times I followed them up as they re- 



