ORCHARD ORIOLE 



69 



the belly, sides and vent, scattered in the most irregular manner, 

 not alike in any two individuals ; and generally the two middle fea- 

 thers of the tail are black, and the others centered with the same 

 color. This bird is now evidently approaching to its perfect plu- 

 mage, as represented in fig. 4, where the black spreads over the 

 whole head, neck, upper part of the back, breast, wings and tail, 

 the reddish bay, or bright chesnut, occupying the lower part of the 

 breast, the belly, vent, rump, tail-coverts, and three lower rows of 

 the lesser wing-coverts. The black on the head is deep and vel- 

 vety; that of the wings inclining to brown; the greater wing-co- 

 verts are tipt with white. In the same orchard, and at the same 

 time, males in each of these states of plumage may be found, united 

 to their respective plain-colored mates. 



In all these the manners, mode of building, food and notes 

 are, generally speaking, the same, differing no more than those of 

 any other individuals belonging to one common species. The 

 female appears always nearly the same. 



I have said that these birds construct their nests very differ- 

 ently from the Baltimores. They are so particularly fond of fre- 

 quenting orchards, that scarcely one orchard in summer is without 

 them. They usually suspend their nest from the twigs of the apple 

 tree; and often from the extremities of the outward branches. It is 

 formed exteriorly of a particular species of long, tough and flexible 

 grass, knit or sewed thro and thro in a thousand directions, as 

 if actually done with a needle. An old lady of my acquaintance 

 to whom I was one day shewing this curious fabrication, after ad- 

 miring its texture for some time, asked me in a tone between joke 

 and earnest, whether I did not think it possible to learn these birds 

 to darn stockings ? This nest is hemispherical, three inches deep 

 by four in breadth; the concavity scarcely two inches deep by two 

 in diameter. I had the curiosity to detach one of the fibres, or 

 stalks, of dried grass from the nest, and found it to measure thir- 

 teen inches in length, and in that distance was thirty-four times 



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