26 



BALTIMORE ORIOLE 



strong horse hair. This nest was hung on the extremity of the 

 horizontal branch of an apple-tree, fronting the south-east; was 

 visible one hundred yards off, though shaded by the sun ; and was 

 the work of a very beautiful and perfect bird. The eggs are five, 

 white, slightly tinged with flesh color, 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 

 color. 



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. 



Their principal food consists of caterpillars, beetles and bugs, 

 particularly one of a brilliant glossy green, fragments of which I 

 have almost always found in their stomach, and sometimes these 

 only. 



The song of the Baltimore is a clear mellow whistle, repeated 

 at short intervals as he gleans among the branches. There is in 



