BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 13 
others; and probably age may improve them in this, as it does in their 
colors. I have a number of their nests now before me, all completed, 
and with eggs. One of these, the neatest, is in the form of a cylin- 
der, of five inches’ diameter, and seven inches in depth, rounded at 
bottom. The opening at top is narrowed, by a horizontal covering, to 
two inches and a half in diameter. The materials are flax, hemp, tow, 
hair, and wool, woven into a complete cloth; the whole tightly sewed 
through and through with long horse hairs, séveral of which measure 
two feetin length. The bottom is composed of thick tufts of cow hair, 
sewed also with strong horse’ hair. This nest was hung on the ex- 
tremity of the horizontal branch of an_apple-tree, fronting the south- 
east; was visible a hundred yards off, though shaded from the sun; 
and was the work of a very beautiful and perfect bird. The eggs are 
five, white, slightly tinged with flesh color, marked on the greater end 
with purple dots, and on the other parts with long hair-like lines, in- 
tersecting each other in a variety of directions. Iam thus minute in 
these particulars, from a wish to point out the specific difference be- 
tween the True and Bastard Baltimore, which Dr. Latham, and some 
others, suspect to be only the same bird in different stages of color. 
So solicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper materials for his 
nest, that, in the season of building, the women in the country are 
under the necessity of narrowly watching their thread that may 
chance to be out bleaching, and the farmer to secure his young grafts ; 
as the Baltimore, finding the former, and the strings which tie the 
latter, so well adapted for his purpose, frequently carries off both ; or, 
should the one be too heavy, and the other too firmly tied, he will tug 
at them a considerable time before he gives up the attempt. Skains 
of silk and hanks of thread have been often found, after the leaves 
were fallen, hanging round the Baltimore’s nest; but so woven up, 
and entangled, as to be entirely irreclaimable. Before the introduc- 
tion of Europeans, no such material could have been obtained here; 
but, with the sagacity of a good architect, he has improved this cir- 
cumstance to his advantage ; and the strongest and best materials are 
uniformly found in those parts by which the whole is supported. 
Their principal food consists of caterpillars, beetles, and bugs, par- 
ticularly one of a brilliant glossy green, fragments of which I have 
almost always found in their stomach, and sometimes these only. 
The song of the Baltimore is a clear, mellow whistle, repeated at 
short intervals, as he gleans among the branches. There is in ita 
certain wild plaintiveness and naiveté extremely interesting. It is not 
uttered with the rapidity of the Ferruginous Thrush, (Turdus rufus,) and 
some other eminent songsters ; but with the pleasing tranquillity of a 
careless ploughboy, whistling merely for his own amusement. When 
alarmed by an approach to his nest, or any such circumstance, he 
makes a kind of rapid cheruping, very different from his usual note. 
This, however, is always succeeded by those mellow tones which seem 
so congenial to his nature. 
High on yon poplar, clad in glossiest green, 
Lhe orange black-capped Baltimore is seen ; 
The broad extended oughs still please him best ; 
Beneath their bending skirts he hangs his nest ; 
oe i 
