102 BIEDS'-NESTING. 



they had? done for years, and here as elsewhere their 

 sociability was manifested, several pairs living har- 

 moniously as close neighbors. These nests are not 

 at all pensile, being supported in the midst of a 

 cluster of twigs and resting upon the branch. They 

 are formed with care out of the long flexible grasses 

 which are used in the pendulous structures, but skil- 

 fully intermixed with it are many pine needles, an in- 

 gredient which would hardly answer in the other form. 

 Dr. Abbott says that this is the prevailing style 

 through all the pine regions of- southern New Jersey. 

 On the other hand, in Bergen county, Mr. A. I. 

 Huyler assures me that the orchard orioles, although 

 they do not make pensile homes, never fix upon a 

 pine branch as a position, but inhabit the fruit trees 

 exclusively, making a nest of interwoven grass, 

 without pine needles, supported in the midst of a 

 clump of apple-twigs to which it is strongly bound. 

 Never, to Mr. Huyler's knowledge — which is trust- 

 worthy and extensive — do the orioles in his region 

 use the same nest twice; whereas at Trenton not 

 only do they return to the same ancestral tree season 

 after season, but always tear the old nests to pieces 

 with amusing vehemence to obtain material for the 

 construction of the new, which are occasionally erect- 

 ed upon the foundations of a previous structure. 



