BALTIMOEE ORIOLE. 239 



wonderfully are they dispersed and so artistieally arc the various 

 shades separated by velvet-black stripes and patches. The 

 greater part of the body is rich azure, with the exception of a 

 velvet-black stripe that runs round the crown of the head, and 

 widens into a patch on the back of the neck. The quill-feathers 

 of the viring are also black, and a black streak is drawn from the 

 comer of the mouth to the neck, enveloping the eye in its 

 course. 



Separated from the azure blue of the body by the black 

 streak just mentioned, a large patch of feathers on the top of 

 the head glows and flashes with metallic splendour, and is of a 

 vivid verditer blue. 



The nest of the Azure Coereba is pear-shaped in form, the 

 hollow for the eggs and yoimg being in the large rounded 

 portion, and the slender part of the pear representing the "tail" 

 of the nest, which is long and slender, like that of many birds 

 which have already been mentioned, except that instead of being 

 solid and pointed, it is hollow and has the opening to the nest in 

 the extremity. In order, therefore, to reach the nest proper, the 

 bird is obliged to enter from below and climb up the hollow 

 shaft, as is the case with some of the African weaver birds. 

 The substances of which the nest is made are long vegetable 

 fibres and slender grasses, and the manner in which these simple 

 materials are woven into so beautiful a nest is remarkably 

 ingenious, and may challenge comparison with the architecture 

 of any other bird. 



The A^ure Coereba is a small bird, about the size of our 

 sparrow, but with a long, slender, and sHghtly-curved beak, as is 

 mostly the case with the large and important family to which it 

 belongs. It feeds chiefly on insects, and may be seen busily 

 engaged among the flowers of its native land, flitting from one 

 blossom to another, and daintily extracting the ininute insects 

 that endeavour to conceal themselves within the recesses of the 

 petals. 



Still keeping to America, we may see more examples of 

 pensile nests. Two differently-shaped specimens are given in 

 the accompanying illustration, in order that they may be com- 

 pared with each other. 



The first in order is that of the Baltimore Oriole {Yphantes 



