Pensile, being attached to the ends of the twigs. It is composed externally entirely of 

 the fibers of dead yucca leaves, and there are hanging to and built into the walls four 

 rather small dead leaves of this plant, that are partly frayed, so that the fiber is used 

 in weaving them into the structure. The interior is lined with soft fine grasses, and 

 only two or three shreds of cotton-waste appear here and there in the lining. The viralls 

 vary from a quarter to half an inch in thickness. The whole structure is very sym- 

 metrical and is a half sphere in shape. Inside the greatest depth is two and a half and 

 the greatest diameter four inches. The entire set of eggs was laid, as the nest had been 

 w^atched for a number of days. Three eggs compose the set, and differ from those 

 already described only in being of a deeper bluish-white ground-color. This nest is 

 attached to the twigs from which it hangs very much like that of a Baltimore Oriole. 



"Ten minutes' walk from the house would have reached any of these five nests, 

 and three of them were within a hundred and fifty yards of one another. 



"The first young that I met with, that had left the nest, were seen on July 2, and 

 on July 4 I saw many fully fledged, and apparently shifting for themselves. The follow- 

 ing note is dated July 24 : 'Young males, fully fledged, evidently of the first brood, were 

 singing very softly.' 'A young male taken, beginning to moult from Srst plumage; the 

 first noted in this condition.' 



"The species here is a very common one, and it seems possible that after a few 

 years' association with houses and people it may no longer be the shy, suspicious bird 

 of the present, but become as familiar as others of the genus have. On their first arrival 

 they were constantly in the oaks overhanging the house, and only seemed alarmed if 

 too closely observed. 



"That they do not always build in the yuccas, though doubtless that is the favorite 

 nesting place, the nest of July 1 proves, and I feel confident that certain Orioles' nests 

 that I have seen in the misseltoe of the oaks, and others pendant from the oak boughs 

 themselves, are, from their general character, those of the species in question." 



A few years later, Mr. Scott made some additional remarks. Since writing the 



above he found that the time of arrival is somewhat earlier, the bird having first been 



noted March 22, and became common within a week. On March 25 he heard a number 



of males in full song at an altitude of 4,500 feet, and on May 1 he found a nest at the 



same altitude. "I must so far modify n;y former views," says Mr. Scott, "as to state 



that I find fully as many of the birds breed on the arid plains and mesas, at an altitude 



between 3,000 and 8,000 feet, as seek a nesting site near water. I have found them 



w^ith nests at least six miles from the nearest water that I know of." 



NAMES: Scott's Oriole, Yucca Oriole. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES: ICTERUS PARISORUM Bonap. (1837). Icterus scotti CovsAi (1854). 



DESCRIPTION. Above, black; lesser wing-coverts and lower back, bright sulphur-yellow; wings, black, 

 tipped with white; below down to the middle of breast, black; belly and basal half of tail, bright 

 sulphur-yellow; apical half of tail, black, the black extending farther up on central tail-feathers; bill 

 and feet, black. Female above, olivacious, slightly varied with black on the interscapulars; wings, 

 blackish, wing-coverts, terminated with white; below, yellowish. 

 Length, 8.25 inches; wing, 4.00; tail, 3.75 inches. 



35 



