BULLOCK'S TROOPIAL, ORIOLE, OR HANG-NEST. 43 



inches in diameter. The leaves are ovate at the base, truncato-bilobate at 

 the end, with one or two lobes on each side, all the lobes acuminate. It is 

 generally distributed, but prefers rich soils. Its bark is smooth on the 

 branches, cracked and fissured on the stems. The wood is yellow, hard, but 

 easily wrought, and is employed for numerous purposes, particularly in the 

 construction of houses, and for charcoal. The Indians often form their 

 canoes of it, for which purpose it is well adapted, the trunk being of great 

 length and diameter, and the wood light. In different parts of the United 

 States, it receives the names of poplar, ivhite wood, and cane wood. 



BULLOCK'S TROOPIAL, ORIOLE, OR HANG-NEST. 



-Mcterus Bullockii, Sivains. 

 PLATE CCXVIIL— Male, Female, and Young Male. 



According to Mr. Nuttall, who has favoured me with so many observa- 

 tions relative to the birds described in this and the preceding volumes, 

 "Bullock's Oriole occurs in nearly the same localities as the Yellow-headed 

 Troopial. About fifty or sixty miles to the north-west of the usual crossing- 

 place of that branch of the La Platte called Larimie's Fork, we observed it 

 making a nest quite similar to that of the Baltimore-bird. This species, 

 which I have since seen in upper California, where it arrives (around Santa 

 Barbara) in the beginning of May, has the same plaintive fifing warble, but 

 more brief and less varied. The males also, as usual, arrive in flocks consi- 

 derably before the females. They have likewise the same habit of concealing 

 themselves for a length of time carefully gleaning for small larvae, or sipping 

 the nectareous juices of the opening blossoms of the trees they delight to 

 frequent. On the Platte, the only trees they can resort to are the balsam 

 poplars, which border the stream. In all respects this species resembles the 

 Common Baltimore-bird, which it supersedes from the first great bifurcation 

 of the Platte, to the shores of the Columbia, extending at least as far as the 

 borders of Old California. Mr. Bullock, its discoverer, also met with it 

 throughout the table-land of Mexico." 



Since the above notice was transmitted to me, I have received another 



