408 
A WEAVER'S MATERIALS. 
hemp, tow, hair, and wool, all felted into a complete cloth ; the whole 
being sewed through and through with long horse-hairs, several of 
which measured two feet in length. The base was composed of thick 
tufts of cow-hair, likewise sewed with strong horse-hair. 
This nest, adds the great American ornithologist, was suspended to 
the extremity of the horizontal branch of an apple-tree, facing the 
south-east, and was visible at a distance of one hundred yards, though 
shaded from the sun. It was the work of a very beautiful and perfect 
bird. 
The Baltimore oriole shows such an anxiety to procure proper 
materials for his nest, and at the same time so conspicuous a disregard 
of the laws of meum and tuum, that, in his building season, the 
country-women are obliged to watch very closely any thread that 
may happen to be out bleaching, and the farmer in the same way to 
secure his young grafts. For the bird, 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 fastened, he will tug and pull with much pertinacity before he 
abandons the attempt. Skeins of silk and hanks of thread have been 
frequently found, after the autumnal leaf-fall, hanging from the Balti- 
more's nest, but so entangled and interwoven as to be entirely useless. 
Observe, that before the European settlement of America the bird could 
have had no such materials to make use of, and the aptitude he has 
displayed in turning them to good account is surely a clear proof of 
intelligence. It is not possible to refer this circumstance to the 
mechanical action of instinct. 
The nest of the orchard oriole is very differently constructed to that 
of the Baltimore. The place chosen is generally an orchard or a fruit 
garden, and the favourite tree is an apple-tree — to the twigs of which, 
or the extremity of an outward branch, the pendent home is attached. 
Externally, it is formed of a long, tenacious, and flexible grass, knitted 
or sewed through in a thousand directions, and with so much precision 
and solidity as to suggest the inquiry. Could not the maker of such a 
nest be taught to darn stockings ? The nest is hemispherical, three 
