The Bullock Oriole 



coils of black horsehair show up in high relief against the remaining 

 background of normal white vegetable felt, these eggs are almost indis- 

 tinguishable from their surroundings. They 

 are obliteratively colored. But what of 

 that? The nest of the Oriole is so deep, and 

 its eggs so much in shadow that, were they 

 purest white, they would scarcely show. 

 And if they were green or blue, it would not 

 matter. No; I prefer to think 

 that the artist wishes to be fan- 

 tastic. And he gets his way. 

 While each set of eggs shows a 

 prevailing or unifying motif, each 

 component egg is individually dis- 

 tinct. No two objects in nature 

 are exactly alike ; and never by any 

 chance does the master decorator 

 of birds' eggs repeat himself. 



But, after all, eggs are as may 

 be. However curiously we may 

 admire the Creator's versatility, 

 it is in the conscious artistry of the 

 bird herself that we most openly 

 rejoice. The Oriole does not de- 

 sign her eggs, but she does design their receptacle; and perhaps nowhere 

 else in nature are art and utility more happily blended. Certainly the 

 selective process of art is nowhere else more clearly exemplified than in the 

 nests of Bullock's Oriole. Guided, of necessity, by materials at hand, the 

 bird, nevertheless, in each instance achieves something individual, dis- 

 tinctive. Even with a wealth of varied materials available, the artist 

 either makes rigid selection of one, as, black horse-hair, white string, or 

 gray bark fiber; or else works out some happy combination of two or 

 three, as, black horse-hair decorated with tufts of cotton, white string 

 relieved by strands of red, gray bark uniformly interspersed with bluish 

 threads. Exceptions to this, the olla podrida sort, are very rare. 



The artistry of the Bullock Oriole is strikingly comparable to that 

 of the Baltimore Oriole, or "Hangnest, " of the East, and its fabrications 

 are similarly purse-shaped, of elaborate and highly finished weave. The 

 Bullock's nests are not, however, so frequently secured by the brim alone, 

 nor so conspicuously depended from the tips of drooping branches. They 

 are apt to be, also, of a more open weave, as befits a warmer climate, and 



Photo by F. S. Merrill 

 FEMALE BULLOCK ORIOLE 



100 



