22-2 NATURE SKETCHES IN TEMPERATE AMERICA 



orchard, the injury occasioned by the storin was conspicuously 

 shown by the bushels of luscious apples which lay on the ground 

 under the trees. But what was my surprise the next morning 

 while passing under the branches of a pear tree in the orchard 

 to hear the smothered cries of baby birds! Looking down upon 

 the ground near my feet, I located the nest of a Baltimore 

 oriole which had been knocked down and flattened out by the 

 force of the hailstorm of the previous evening. 



On picking up the nest a putrefactive odor was detected 

 emanating from it, which caused me to surmise that it came 

 from a dead bird inside. In the meantime, there flew about 

 me, in an apple tree, two house wrens that kept up distressing 

 cries. Then I saw that these were the same birds that had 

 appropriated the unused oriole's nest which had formerly hung 

 near the top of the pear tree. This was the wren's second 

 brood, for I recognized this same pair as "having reared a fam- 

 ily in the eaves of an outhouse. The opening in the top of the 

 present oriole nest was very small, as the wrens had lined 

 the interior with soft chicken feathers and twigs. These were 

 quickly removed and the hole made large enough so that I 

 could see within. One of the young birds was found to be dead, 

 but the four remaining ones were alive and cried vigorously. 

 After taking out the dead bird and rearranging the nest, it 

 was placed in the same pear tree and tied to the trunk with a 

 string. A careful watch had been kept on my movements by 

 the parent birds, and as soon as I retired the mother bird 

 hastily made a visit to the nest. With evident excitement 

 she hurriedly examined it and then she flew to a woodpile about 

 fifteen yards away. She nervously searched the spaces here 

 between the sticks of wood, going in and out, gathering insects 

 and spiders as she proceeded on her way. The male, in the 

 meantime, seemed also to be cognizant of the situation, and 

 he, too, was soon in search of food. At last, after going the 

 rounds, he flew to the woodpile, and, meeting his mate, with 

 trembling wings he passed the gathered morsels over to her 

 from his loaded bill. In a moment more, she flew to the nest 

 with the extra spread and fed the little crying babies, which 

 were almost famished. The parents then alternated in their 

 visits with food to the young, keeping up a constant feeding 



