240 



VERTEBRATES. 



Baltimore Oriole. 



The plumage of the male when full grown is very brilliant. 

 The head, throat, and back are black, the under parts are orange, 

 the breast vermilion. A band of orange 

 passes over the shoulders, and the tail is 

 orange and black. The length of the 

 bird is almost eight inches. This is not 

 the only bird that constructs pensile 

 nests; the weaver birds also form these 

 nests, but of a different form. They 

 look like great pistols hung up by the 

 butt, the entrance being at the muzzle, 

 and the nest in the butt. 



29. The Common Starung is a bird 

 well known both for its beauty and the 

 HUgular method of flight. When a flock of Starlings begin to 

 settle for the night, they wheel round the place selected with great 

 accuracy. Suddenly, as if by word of command, the whole flock 

 turn their sides to the spectator, and with a great whirring of 

 wings, the whole front and shape of the flock is altered. No body 

 of soldiers could be better wheeled or countermarched than are 

 these flocks of starlings, except, perhaps, an iinfortunate few, who 

 are usually thrown out at each change, and whom we must chari- 

 tably suppose to be recruits. 



80. The Starling lives principally among 

 old buildings, and is very fond of gaining 

 admittance into dovecotes, where it is a 

 harmless visitor, and may be suffered to 

 remain without detriment to the pigeons oi 

 their eggs. Its nest is made usually in a 

 hole in a wall, sometimes in a decayed tree, 

 and contains five eggs of a veiy delicate 

 uniformly pale blue. 

 31. There is never any difficulty in dis- 

 covering the nest of the Starling, for if it builds in a hole of a 

 wall it generally leaves several straws sticking out, as if to indi- 

 cate the locality ; and when it goes to take food to its young, both 



Gommon Starling. 



