20 BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 



the form of a cylinder, of five inches diameter, and seven 

 inches in depth, rounded at bottom. The opening at top is 

 narrowed, by a horizontal covering, to two inches and a half 

 in diameter. The materials are flax, hemp, tow, hair, and 

 wool, woven into a complete cloth ; the whole tightly sewed 

 through and through with long horse-hairs, several of which 

 measure two feet in length. The bottom is composed of 

 thick tufts of cow-hair, sewed also with strong horse-hair. 

 This nest was hung on the extremity of the horizontal branch 

 of an apple tree, fronting the southeast ; was visible a hundred 

 yards off, though shaded from the sun ; and was the work of 

 a very beautiful and perfect bird. The eggs are five, white, 

 slightly tinged with flesh colour, marked on the greater end 

 with purple dots, and on the other parts with long hair-like 

 lines, intersecting each other in a variety of directions. I am 

 thus minute in these particulars, from a wish to point out the 

 specific difference between the true and bastard baltimore, 

 which Dr Latham, and some others, suspect to be only the 

 same bird in different stages of colour. 



So solicitous is the baltimore to procure proper materials 

 for his nest, that, in the season of building, the women in the 

 country are under the necessity of narrowly watching their 

 thread that may chance to be out bleaching, and the farmer to 

 secure his young grafts ; as the baltimore, finding the former, 

 and the strings which tie the latter, so well adapted for his 

 purpose, frequently carries off both ; or, should the one be 

 too heavy, and the other too firmly tied, he will tug at them 

 a considerable time before he gives up the attempt. Skeins 

 of silk and hanks of thread have been often found, after the 

 leaves were fallen, hanging round the baltimore's nest ; but 

 so woven up and entangled as to be entirely irreclaimable. 

 Before the introduction of Europeans, no such material could 

 have been obtained here ; but, with the sagacity of a good 

 architect, he has improved this circumstance to his advantage ; 

 and the strongest and best materials are uniformly found in 

 those parts by which the whole is supported. 



