46 ORCHARD ORIOLE. 
of the tail; and slight stains of reddish are seen commending on the 
sides and belly. The rest of the plumage as in the female; this con- 
tinuing nearly the same, on the same bird, during the remainder of 
the season. At the’ same time, other individuals are found, as rep- 
resented by Fig. 13, which are at least birds of the third summer. 
These are mottled with black and ‘olive on the upper parts of the 
back, and with reddish bay and yellow on the belly, sides, and vent, 
scattered in the most irregular manner, not alike in aky two individ- 
uals; and, generally, the two middle feathers of the tail are black, 
and the others centred with the same color. This bird is now evi- 
dently approaching to its perfect plumage, as represented in Fig. 14, 
where the black spreads over the whole head, neck, upper part of the 
back, breast, wings, and tail; the reddish bay, or bright chestnut, 
occupying the lower part .of the breast, the belly, vent, rump, tail- 
coverts, and three lower rows of the lesser wing-coverts. The black 
on the head is deep and velvety; that of the wings inclining to 
brown; the greater wing-coverts are tipped with white. In the same 
orchard, and at the same time, males in each of these states of plu- 
mage may be found, united to their respective plain-colored mates. 
In all these, the manners, mode of building, food, and notes, are, 
generally speaking, the same, differing no more than those of any 
other individuals belonging to one common species. The female 
appears always nearly the same. 
T have said that these birds construct their nests very differently 
from the Baltimores. They are so particularly fond of frequenting 
orchards, that scarcely one orchard in summer is without them. 
They usually suspend their nest from the twigs of the apple-tree; 
and often from the extremities of the outward branches. It is formed 
exteriorly of a particular species of long, tough, and flexible grass, 
knit, or sewed through end through in a thousand @irections, as if’ 
actually done with a needle. An old lady of my acquaintance, to 
whom I was one day showing this curious fabrication, after admiring 
its texture for some time, asked me, in a tone between joke and 
‘earnest, whether J did not think it possible to learn these birds to darn 
stockings. This nest is hemispherical, three inches deep by four in 
breadth; the concavity scarcely two inches deep by two in diameter. 
Thad the curiosity to detach one of the fibres, or stalks of dried grass, 
from the nest, and found it to measure thirteen inches in length, and 
in that distance was thirty-four times hooked through and returned, 
winding round and round the nest! The inside is usually composed 
of wool, or the light, downy appendages attached to the seeds of the 
Platanus occidentalis, or button-wood, which form.a very soft and 
commodious bed. Here and there the outward work is extended to 
an adjoining twig, round which it is strongly twisted, to give more 
stability to the whole, and prevent it from being’ overset by the wind. 
‘When they choose the long, pendent branches of the _weepin 
willow to build in, as they frequently do, the nest, though formed o 
the same materials, is made much deeper, and of slighter texture. 
The circumference is marked out by a number of these pensile twigs 
that descend on each side like ribs, supporting the whole; their thick 
foliage, at the same time, completely concealing the nest from view. 
The depth in this case is. increased to four or five inches, and the 
