70 



ORCHARD ORIOLE 



hooked thro and returned, wmding round and round the nest! The 

 inside is usually composed of wool, or the light downy appendages 

 attached to the seeds of the Platanus occidentalism or button-wood, 

 which form a very soft and commodious bed. Here and there the 

 outward work is extended to an adjoining twig, round which it is 

 strongly twisted, to give more stability to the whole, and prevent 

 it from being overset by the wind. 



When they choose the long pendent branches of the Weeping- 

 willow to build in, as they frequently do, the nest, tho 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 pendent 

 branches, being sometimes twelve and even fifteen feet in length, 

 have a large sweep in the wind, and render the first of these pre- 

 cautions necessary, to prevent the eggs or young from being thrown 

 out; and the close shelter afforded by the remarkable thickness 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 fa- 

 brication 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 spe- 

 cies would uniformly build their nest in the same manner, w herever 

 they might happen to fix it; but it is evident from these 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. 

 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 Balti- 



