292 BIRDS 



This beautiful bird feeds on fruits and insects, and its 

 nest is constructed of blades of gi'ass, wool, hair, fine 

 strings, and various vegetable fibers, which are so curiously 

 interwoven as to confine and sustain each other. The nest 

 is usually suspended from a forked or slender branch, in 

 shape like a deep basin, and generally lined with fine 

 feathers. 



" On arriving at their breeding locality, they appear full 

 of life and activity, darting incessantly through the lofty 

 branches of the tallest trees, appearing and vanishing rest- 

 lessly, flashing at intervals into sight from amidst the ten- 

 der, waving foliage, and seem like living gems intended to 

 decorate the verdant garments of the fresh-clad forest." 



t is said these birds are so attached to their young that 

 the female has been taken and conveyed on her eggs, upon 

 which, with resolute and fatal instinct, she remained faith- 

 fully sitting until she expired. 



An Indiana gentleman relates the following story: 



" When I was a boy, living in the hilly . country of 

 southern Indiana, I remember very vividly the nesting of a 

 pair of fine orioles. There stood in the barn yard a large 

 and tall sugar tree with limbs within six or eight feet of the 

 ground. 



"At about thirty feet above the ground I discovered 

 evidences of an oriole's nest. A few days later I noticed 

 they had done considerable more work, and that they were 

 using horse hair, wool, and fine strings. 



"They appeared to have some knowledge of spinning, 

 as they would take a horse hair and seemingly wrap it 

 with wool before placing it in position on the nest." 



