68 - PEARLS AND PEBBLES. 



The nest of the Oriole is a curious piece of workman- 

 ship, composed of all sorts of thready materials, picked 

 up in all kinds of odd places, even in busy streets where 

 no one would suppose so shy a bird would ever venture 

 to appear. 



I have in my possession a wonderful specimen of an 

 Oriole s nest, taken from the branch of an acacia tree in 

 front of a dry goods store in a busy, populous town. 

 The nest is made of a mass of strings, pack thread, 

 whip cord, cotton warp and woollen yarn. All these 

 materials are most skilfully woven together in a regular 

 network, and form a large soft elastic purse-shaped 

 bag with a round opening in one side. The nest was 

 suspended from the end of the bough by strings care- 

 fully fastened to it, and dangling from this curious 

 hanging cradle is a long piece of string, to which is 

 attached a large somewhat rusted packing needle, 

 threaded, as if it had been used by the ingenious little 

 worker in the manufacture of the bag, and there left. 

 All the materials had been gathered up from the sweep- 

 ings of the store, collected bit by bit, but at what time 

 is a question unanswered. 



So splendid a bird as the Baltimore Oriole picking up 

 rags and odds and ends in a public thoroughfare one 

 would think could hardly have escaped the eyes of men 

 and boys, if done in noon-day; but there is a hidden 

 wisdom- possessed by God's little ones, and it strikes me 

 that the work was done, and well done, tob, in the early 



