The Arizona Hooded Oriole 



of the birdman's safety) I ascend a ladder balanced in an upright position, 

 for the branch is a mere whip-end. There are three eggs, white, lightly 

 spotted and briefly scrawled with dark reddish brown, utterly unlike the 

 Bullock Oriole type. The nest is a rounded hammock, or deep cup, 

 composed solely of fine, even strands of palm fiber, and made fast on its 

 sides through numberless holes pierced in the substance of enveloping 

 leaves. The cup is three inches wide and of a like depth, and boasts a 

 scanty lining of white chicken-feathers. But all we hear of the owners 

 is a faint chirp from the female, concealed in a distant thicket. It is not 

 a time, evidently, for the risking of black-and-gold liveries. 



One season this local pair of birds behaved very strangely. Instead 

 of getting down to business, the birds idled away the month of July 

 making trial, or decoy, nests. These were invariably of palm fiber, 

 carefully moulded but not always lined; and we found two in our tree 

 yucca, two in Neighbor Hoover's banana tree, and one in a small sycamore, 

 all, apparently, the product of a single pair of birds. To what end was 

 all the labor? Was milady so hard to please? Or were there possibly 

 several miladies? 



A possible key to this strange conduct is afforded by the experience 

 of another observer, Mrs. Bagg, of Santa Barbara. According to this 

 lady, a male Hooded Oriole was observed day after day as he constructed 

 a nest on the under side of a palm leaf on the Bagg demesne. No sign 

 of the female was at any time seen during construction. When the 

 edifice was completed, however, the young swain appeared one morning 

 with two females. The ladies inspected the quarters minutely, and each 

 arriving at the decision that the situation was one to be desired, fell into a 

 dispute as to whose it should be. Finally, they set to and fought bitterly. 

 The quarrel could not be decided in a single day, for each lady was de- 

 termined to win home and fortune. Each day, therefore, they fought, 

 until both were exhausted. Again and again they carried their battle 

 to the ground, and might have been caught, so bitter was their hatred. 

 The male, it seems, took no part in the conflict, but either looked on 

 disgustedly, or took himself off to moralize on the depravity of woman- 

 kind. Finally, one suitress gave in and left her rival in possession. 

 Peace being established, the winner laid two eggs and sat happily for a 

 few days, sat until her old enemy, having recruited her strength, returned 

 to give battle. A fight ensued. The eggs were broken in the scrimmage, 

 the nest dishevelled, and the conflict was transferred to parts unknown — 

 certainly a sad case of misguided judgment on the part of one member of 

 the sterner sex. 



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