BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



19 



flax round two forked twigs, corresponding to the intended 

 width of the nest : with the same materials, mixed with 

 quantities of loose tow, he interweaves or fabricates a strong 

 firm kind of cloth, not unlike the substance of a hat in its raw 

 state, forming it into a pouch of six or seven inches in depth, 

 lining it substantially with various soft substances, well inter- 

 woven with the outward netting, and, lastly, finishes with a 

 layer of horse-hair ; the whole being shaded from the sun and 

 rain by a natural pent-house, or canopy of leaves. As to a 

 hole being left in the side for the young to be fed and void 

 their excrements through, as Pennant and others relate, it is 

 certainly an error : I f have never met with anything of the 

 kind in the nest of the baltimore. 



Though birds of the same species have, generally speak- 

 ing, a common form of building, yet, contrary to the usually 

 received opinion, they do not build exactly in the same 

 manner. As much difference will be found in the style, 

 neatness, and finishing of the nests of the baltimores, as in 

 their voices. Some appear far superior workmen to others : 

 and probably age may improve them in this, as it does in 

 their colours. I have a number of their nests now before me, 

 all completed, and with eggs. One of these, the neatest, is in 



"branches, and form thus a security from snakes or other depredators, 

 which could easily reach them if placed on a more solid foundation. 

 They are formed of the different grasses, of dry roots, lichens, long and 

 slender mosses, and, in the present instances mentioned by our author, 

 of substances which could not occur in the early or really natural state 

 of the country, but had been adopted either from necessity, or " with 

 the sagacity of a good architect," improving every circumstance to the 

 best advantage. Among the different species, they vary in shape, from 

 being round or resembling a compact ball, to nearly every bottle-shaped 

 gradation of form, until they exceed three or four feet in length. Many 

 species being gregarious, they breed numerously on the same tree, and 

 their nests, suspended from the pensile branches, and waving in the 

 wind, render the landscape and woods singular to an unaccustomed eye, 

 and present appearances which those only who have had the good fortune 

 to witness them in their native wilds can appreciate. 



The female is given by Wilson in Plate LIII. in our second volume 

 —Ed. 



