JO ORCHARD ORIOLE. 



formed of the same materials, is made much deeper, and 

 of slighter texture. The circumference is marked out by a 

 number of these pensile twigs, that descend on each side like 

 ribs, supporting the whole ; their thick foliage, at the same 

 time, completely concealing the nest from view. The depth 

 in this case is increased to four or five inches, and the whole 

 is made much slighter. These long pendant branches, being 

 sometimes twelve and even fifteen feet in length, have a large 

 sweep in the wind, and render the first of these precautions 

 necessary, to prevent the eggs or young from being thrown 

 out ; and the close shelter afforded by the remarkable thick- 

 ness of the foliage is, no doubt, the cause of the latter. Two 

 of these nests, such as I have here described, are now lying 

 before me, and exhibit not only art in the construction, but 

 judgment in adapting their fabrication so judiciously to their 

 particular situations. If the actions of birds proceeded, as 

 some would have us believe, from the mere impulses of that 

 thing called instinct, individuals of the same species would 

 uniformly build their nest in the same manner, wherever they 

 might happen to fix it ; but it is evident from those just men- 

 tioned, and a thousand such circumstances, that they reason 

 a priori, from cause to consequence ; providently managing 

 with a constant eye to future necessity and convenience. 



The eggs, one of which is represented on the same plate 

 (fig. a), are usually four, of a very pale bluish tint, with a few 

 small specks of brown and spots of dark purple. An egg of 

 the baltimore oriole is exhibited beside it (fig. b) ; both of 

 these were minutely copied from nature, and are sufficient of 

 themselves to determine, beyond all possibility of doubt, the 

 identity of the two species. I may add, that Mr Charles W. 

 Peale, proprietor of the Museum in Philadelphia, who, as a 

 practical naturalist, stands deservedly first in the first rank of 

 American connoisseurs, and who has done more for the pro- 

 motion of that sublime science than all our speculative theorists 

 together, has expressed to me his perfect conviction of the 

 changes which these birds pass through, haviDg himself ex- 



