An Oriole's Nest. 73 



around it ; next he tried some threads ; but, as the 

 cloth was lying loose on the grass, the whole piece 

 came whenever he pulled. For a few moments he 

 worked diligently, trying a pull on each side in suc- 

 cession. Once he tumbled end over end in a comical 

 scramble, as the fragment caught on a grass stub but 

 gave way when he had braced himself and was pulling 

 hardest. Quite abruptly he flew off, and I thought 

 he had given up the attempt. 



In a minute he was back with his mate, thinking, 

 no doubt, that she, as a capable little manager, would 

 know all about such things. If birds do not talk, they 

 have at least some very ingenious ways of letting one 

 another know what they think, which amounts to the 

 same thing. 



The two worked together for some minutes, getting 

 an occasional thread, but not enough to pay for the 

 labor. The trouble was that both pulled together on 

 the same side ; and so they merely dragged the bit 

 of cloth all over the lawn, instead of pulling out the 

 threads they wanted. Once they unraA^eled a long 

 thread by pulling at right angles, but the next 

 moment they were together on the same side again. 

 The male seemed to do, not as he was told, but 

 exactly what he saw his mate do. Whenever she 

 pulled at a thread, he hopped around, as close to 

 her as he could get, and pulled too. 



