Rare and Curious Nests. 269 
to believe that it was built for the accommodation of either 
parent while the other was sitting. The aperture was a con- 
venient outlook for the non-sitting bird, who, from this 
position, could with little difficulty, like a sentinel from an 
outpost, detect the approach of an enemy. 
But nothing can exceed in beauty and skill the nest of a 
female Baltimore Oriole in the writer’s possession. It was 
built under peculiar circumstances, the builder being a 
prisoner, having been taken from home when quite a fledg- 
ling. A male companion was brought away at the same 
time. These birds, the property of Dr. Detwiler, of Easton, 
Pa., in 1883, were a source of considerable pleasure to that 
elderly gentleman in his leisure moments. Under his careful, 
kindly management, they became quite tame, the female 
manifesting greater familiarity than the male. That either 
would become so accustomed to confinement as to evince a 
desire to build never entered the mind of the Doctor. They 
had, when he was alone, the freedom of his studio. One 
lovely June morning, the outside world brimming over with- 
life and joy and sunshine, the door of their cage was thrown 
open, and the Doctor settled himself into a soft easy-chair 
to read. Hardly had he scanned a dozen lines, when sorne- 
thing pulling at his hair caused him to drop his paper and 
look around. He was not slow to detect the offender in the 
person of his femal2 feathered friend who was seen flying 
towards the most distant corner of the room with something, 
resembling hair, in her bill, The reading was resumed, and 
again the culprit stole cautiously to where he was sitting, 
and, seizing another hair, was off in a twinkling. 
Permitting for a while these liberties, and noticing that 
bits of strings were, when placed in positions to be seen, 
quite as much the objects of interest as the hairs of his head, 
the Doctor was not slow in divining the motive which led to 
this strange and unexpected behavior. Convinced by 
actions, as significant as words themselves could be, that his 
little friend was desirous to build a home, he began to cast 
