THE AEIZONA HOODED OJRIOLE. 477 



Within our borders it is more common in southern Arizona than anywliere 

 else, and I found about twenty of its nests here during the spring and summer 

 of 1872. I first noticed this handsome Oriole on April 5, when I saw several 

 males. My attention was drawn to the bird by its peculiar, sharp, grating call, 

 uttered while flitting through the cottonwoods and shrubbery in the Rillito Creek 

 bottom, and I rarely saw one far away from water at any season of the year. 

 The dense, shady groves of cottonwood and mesquite trees in the creek bottoms 

 appeared to be its favorite haunts. It is a shy, restless creature, nearly always 

 on the move, looking for insects of various kinds and their larvse, including 

 hairless caterpillars, and small grasshoppers. During the mating season, begin- 

 ning about the latter part of April, several males may sometimes be seen chasing 

 a female and scolding and fighting each other for the coveted prize. 



In southern Arizona nidification begins rather late, rarely before May 20, 

 and sometimes later. In southern California, however, it commences fully a 

 month earlier, and a full set of eggs was taken by Mr. Theodore D. Hurd, near 

 Riverside, California, on April 23. Mr. "W. E. D. Scott found ten nests of this 

 Oriole in a canyon in the Santa Catalina Mountains in 1884, which are fully 

 described in "The Auk" (Vol. II, 1885, pp. 159-165). This paper gives an 

 excellent account of its breeding habits as observed by him. His earliest nest 

 was found on May 28 and contained three fresh eggs. 



Although I searched carefully for nests of the Arizona Hooded Oriole during 

 the entire month of May, I failed to find any until June 5, when I took the first 

 nest, containing three fresh eggs. It was suspended from a bunch of mistletoe 

 growing on a limb of a cottonwood tree, about 40 feet from the ground, and was 

 hard to get at. This, like nearly all the nests found by me, was woven of a species 

 of slender wiry grass growing in moist places, which was used in a green state. It 

 contained a little cottonwood down for lining. Its green color, closely resembling 

 the surrounding foliage, made it very difiicult to see. It was securely fastened 

 to several mistletoe twigs among which it was placed. Fully three-fifths of the 

 nests found by me were placed in similar situations; the others were suspended 

 in mesquite (excepting one found in an ash tree), at various heights from 12 to 

 45 feet from the ground. The.majority of these nests were woven of this green 

 wire grass, which seems admirably adapted for this purpose, and a few only were 

 made of dry yucca fibers; the latter were much more easily seen. In some 

 instances this material was also used for the inner lining, mixed with willow 

 down or a little wool, rarely with a few feathers, or a small quantity of horsehair. 



While some of the nests were semipensile and slung somewhat like a ham- 

 mock, so that they rocked like a cradle with every breeze, in the majority some of 

 the surrounding slender twigs among which the nest was placed were incorpo- 

 rated into its walls and sides, securing it almost immovably in position. None 

 of the nests seen by me in any way resembled those of Bullock's Oriole, which 

 was also common here. They were always much brighter colored, not nearly 

 so deep, and were constructed of entirely different materials. Neither do the 

 grass-woven nests of the Arizona Hooded Oriole resemble the common type of 

 its near relative found in Texas. I refer to the nests built of tree moss, which 



