THE ORCHARD ORIOLE, OR HANG-NEST. 49 



doubt from the marked preference which the former manifests to the plains 

 in autumn, where a great number are shot or caught in trap cages. It is 

 easily kept in cages, where it sings with all the liveliness which it shews in 

 its wild state, and may be fed on rice and dry fruits, when fresh ones cannot 

 be procured. I have known one of these birds, a beautiful male, kept for 

 upwards of four years by a friend of mine at New Orleans. It had been 

 raised from the nest, and having passed through the different changes of its 

 plumage, had become perfect, was full of action, and sung delightfully. 



The nest represented in the plate was drawn in Louisiana, and was entirely 

 composed of grass. It may be looked upon as a sample of the usual form 

 and construction. The branch of honey locust on which you see these birds 

 belongs to a tree which sometimes grows to a great height, without much 

 apparent choice of situation. It is more abundant to the west of the Alle- 

 ghanies, and towards the Southern Districts, than in the Middle States. The 

 wood is brittle and seldom used. The trunk and branches are frequently 

 covered with innumerable long, sharp, and extremely hard spines, protruded 

 in every direction, and in some instances placed so near to each other as to 

 preclude the possibility of any person's climbing them. It bears a long 

 pod, containing a sweet substance, not unlike that of the honey of bees, and 

 which is eaten by children, when it becomes quite ripe. The spines are 

 made use of by tobacconists for the purpose of fastening together the different 

 twists of their rolls. 



Dr. Bachman informs me, that he has kept this bird in aviaries for several 

 years, and that although the birds of this genus are supposed to be of a plain 

 colour in winter, he has ascertained that this species at least preserves 

 throughout the winter the plumage it possessed in summer. 



In a male preserved in spirits, the roof of the mouth is slightly ascending, 

 with two longitudinal ridges; the posterior aperture of the nares oblongo- 

 linear, with the edges papillate; the upper mandible with three prominent 

 lines, and four grooves; the tongue is 6 twelfths long, sagittate and papillate 

 at the base, narrow, channelled above, the tip deeply slit and lacerated. The 

 oesophagus is 2 inches 2 twelfths long, its greatest breadth 3 twelfths. The 

 stomach is very small, roundish, compressed, 5 twelfths long, |- twelfth 

 broad; its muscles thick, the epithelium thin, tough, longitudinally rugous, 

 reddish-brown. The contents of the stomach are insects. The intestine is 

 6 inches long, from lj twelfths to 1 twelfth in breadth. The cceca 1 twelfth 

 long, \ twelfth broad, 8 twelfths from the extremity. 



The trachea is H inches long, much flattened, 1 twelfth broad at the 

 upper part; its rings 65, with 2 dimidiate. Bronchi of about 10 half rings. 

 The muscles as in the other species of this group. 



Vol. IV. 7 



