346 NESTS AND EGOS OF 



two fresh eggs, in Pinal county, Arizona. During the summer of 1884 he found flTe 

 nests in the same region, between May 24 and July 1. All except one were placed 

 in yucca plants, about four feet from the ground, and situated not far from water. 

 Several were sewed to the edge of dead leaves, which, hanging down parallel to the 

 trunks of the plant, entirely concealed the nest. These were semi-pensile, and com- 

 posed externally of fibres of the yupca, fine grasses, cotton-waste, twine and batting, 

 lined with fine grasses and cottou'-waste throughout. A fifth nest, taken July 1, 

 was built in a sycamore tree about eighteen feet from the ground. Pensile, being at- 

 tached to the ends of the twigs very much like that of a Baltimore Oriole. The nests 

 contained three and four eggs each. The sizes of one set of four, taken May 27, are 

 given as follows: .96x.68, .98x.66, .92x.68, .96x.68; another set of four, taken May 

 30, exhibit the following respective measurements: l.Olx.72, 1.02x.70, .97x.70, 1.02x 

 .73. The eggs are usually four in number, of a dull white, with a bluish tint variously 

 marked with small blotches and fine dottings of purplish-brown, approaching black; 

 in some are found the zigzag markings common to the eggs of th« Orioles. 



505. HOODED OBIOLE. Icterus cucuUatus Swains. Geog. Dist. — Valley of 

 the Lower Rio Grande in Texas, south through Eastern and Southern Mexico. 



According to Dr. James C. Merrill and Mr. George B. Sennett, this is the most 

 abundant of all the "Orioles on the Lower Rio Grande in Texas. Its home is in the 

 woods or the edges of forests and groves, where the trees are hung with pendant 

 tresses of Spanish moss, in which the nests are built. These, Dr. Merrill says, are 

 perfectly characteristic, being most frequently built in a bunch of the hanging moss, 

 usually at no great distance from the ground; when so placed, the nests are formed 

 almost entirely by hollowing out and matting together the moss with a few filaments 

 of dark, hair-like moss as a lining. Another situation is in a bush growing to a 

 height of about six feet, with bare stems, throwing out irregular masses of leaves at 

 ■ the top which conceal the nest. A few pairs build in the Spanish bayonets that 

 grow on sand ridges in the salt prairies; here the nests are built chiefiy of the dry, 

 tough fibres of the plant, with a little wool or thistle-down as lining; they are placed 

 among the dead and depressed leaves, two or three of which are used as supports. 

 The eggs are three to five in number, white, with a bluish tinge, or buff, marked 

 with hieroglyphics and pencilings common to the eggs of this family, but not so 

 abundant. These markings are usually brown, but when profuse, black and lilac 

 shades appear. The larger end is never free from markings, and is frequently cov- 

 ered with them, but more commonly displays them in the form of a band. Dr. Mer- 

 rill says some sets are precisely like large Vireo's eggs. Mr. Sennett gives the 

 average size, taken from a large series, as .86x.60. 



505o. ABIZONA HOODED OBIOI<E. Icterus cueullatus nelsoni Ridgw. Geog. 

 Dist. — Southern Arizona and California, south into Western Mexico and Lower Cali- 

 fcrnia. 



This variety of the Hooded Oriole Is a common breeding bird In Southern Ari- 

 zona and California. Prof. B. W. Everman found it nesting quite numerously as 

 far north as San Buenventura, California, and states that it has beeni found breeding 

 at Santa Barbara, thirty miles farther up the coast, though not so commonly as in 

 Ventura county. The first full set of eggs was taken May 1; the average number to a 

 set in that region is five. The nests were generally suspended m sycamores, often 

 in live-oaks, ranging from five to fifteen feet from the ground. They are composed 

 of grass picked while yet green, so that the n«st is usually of a bright straw-color. 



