38 THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



food consists of insects, but it also feeds on fruit, 

 especially cherries. " The nest of the Golden 

 Oriole," writes Mr. Seebohm, " is unlike that of 

 any other European bird. It is, perhaps, more 

 curious than beautiful, and is most artistically 

 made, but the art is of the mechanical kind. 

 The nest is always suspended from the fork of 

 a horizontal branch, sometimes of a pine-tree, 

 but generally of an oak, and is usually placed 

 from twenty to thirty feet above the ground. 

 The outside is composed of broad» sedges and 

 strips of inner bark, which are wrapped round 

 the two branches forming the fork, from which 

 the nest is pendant, I have generally found 

 intertwined with these long narrow strips a few 

 withered leaves, and almost invariably a scrap 

 or two of a Dutch newspaper. The lining is 

 composed of the slender round grass-stalks, very 

 frequently with the flower of the grass attached. 

 It is said that the male relieves the female in 

 the duties of incubation, and it drives off any 

 intruder with great daring. It has the general 

 reputation of being a quarrelsome bird, and in 

 spring the males are often seen fighting, either 

 for the possession of the female, or for the range 



