. ORCHARD ORIOLE. 47 
whole is made much slighter. These long, pendent branches, being 
sometimes twelve and even fifteen feet in length, have a large sweep 
in the wind, and render the first of these precautions necessary, 
to prevent the eggs or young from being thrown out; and the close 
shelter afforded by the remarkable thickness of the foliage is, no 
dotbt, the cause of the latter. Two of these nests, such as I have 
here described, are now lying before me, and exhibit not only art in 
the construction, but judgment in adapting their fabrication so judi- 
ciously to their particular situations. If the actions of birds pro- 
ceeded, as some would have us believe, from the mere impulses of 
that thing called instinct, individuals of the same species would 
uniformly build their nest in the same manner, wherever they might 
happen to fix it; but it is evident from those just mentioned, and a 
thousand such circumstances, that they reason a prior, from cause to 
consequence; providently managing with a constant eye to future 
necessity and convenience. 
The eggs, one of which is represented on the same plate, (Fig. a,) 
are usually four, of a very pale bluish tint, with a few small specks 
of brown, and spots of dark purple. An egg of the Baltimore Oriole 
is exhibited beside it, (Fig. b ;*) both of these were minutely copied 
from nature, and are sufficient of themselves to determine, beyond all 
possibility of doubt, the identity of the two species. I may add, that 
Mr. Charles W. Peale, proprietor of the museum in Philadelphia, 
who, as a practical naturalist, stands deservedly first in the first rank 
of American connoisseurs, and who has done more for the promotion of 
that sublime science than all our speculative theorists together, has 
expressed to me his perfect conviction of the changes which these 
birds pass through; having himself examined them both in spring 
and towards the latter part of summer, and having at the present 
time in his possession thirty or forty individuals of this species, in 
almost every gradation of change. 
The Orchard Oriole, though partly a dependant on the industry of 
the farmer, is no sneaking pilferer, but an open and truly beneficent 
friend. To all those countless multitudes of destructive bugs and 
caterpillars that infest the fruit-trees in spring and summer, preying 
on the leaves, blossoms, and embryo of the fruit, he is a deadly ene- 
my ; devouring them wherever he can find them, and destroying, on 
an average, some hundreds of them every day, without offering the 
slightest injury to the fruit, however much it may stand in his way. 
I have witnessed instances where the entrance to his nest was more 
than half closed up by a cluster of apples, which he could have easily 
demolished in half a minute; but, as if holding the property of his 
patron sacred, or considering it as a natural bulwark to his own, 
he slid out and in with the greatest gentleness and caution. I am 
not sufficiently conversant in entomology to particularize the different 
species of insects on which he feeds, but I have good reason for be- 
lieving that they are almost altogether such as commit the greatest 
depredations on the fruits of the orchard; and, as he visits us at a 
time when his services are of the greatest value, and, like a faithful 
guardian, takes up his station where the enemy is most to be expected, 
* The references here are to Wilson’s original edition. 
