186 
VERTEBEATA. 
The Orchard-Oriole, I.spurius^is six and a half inches long; color bright hay ; head, neck, 
hack, and wings black , it feeds on crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, and larvae, and occasionally on 
young fruits and berries. It builds its nest like the preceding, though it is not so pendulous, it 
being firmly attached all around its margin. The eggs are bluish-white, speckled with brown. 
This species ranges from the equator to the State of Maine, though it is rare in Northern New 
England ; at the south it is even more common than the golden robin. 
Beside these there are several other species in South America, some of which build their pend- 
ulous nests in considerable numbers upon the 
same tree. Mr. Edwards, in his voyage up the 
Amazon, saw forty -five nests in one small tree, 
of the two species, Cacicus icto'onotus and C. 
hcemorrhous. Some of them were two feet in 
length, Avith an opening near the top. These 
were woven of grass, and one nest often de- 
pended from another, so that the tree was 
entirely covered and concealed, except only 
some of the topmost branches. These nests 
are built in this manner to protect them from 
the snakes and monkeys that abound in these 
hot climates. 
The Red-winged Oriole, /. pkoeniceus, 
is seven and a half inches long, color black, 
lesser tail-coverts red ; the female striate with 
brown and Avhitish. It is called by the vari- 
ous names of Sivam2>Blackbird^ Red-winged 
Blackhird, Red-xvinged Starling, and Corn- 
Thief. Its range is from Mexico to Nova 
Scotia; it is migratory north of Maryland, 
and stationary south of it. The nests are 
built in swampy places, on low bushes, or in 
a tussock of grass , the eggs are three to five, 
white, tinged with blue, and marked with faint purple streaks; two broods are produced in a 
season ; the food consists of insects and their larvae, and also green corn and wild rice, with other 
TUE EED-WINGED BLACKBIED. 
seeds. In September they gather in immense flocks, and often do great damage to the crops, 
especially on the plantations of the Middle and Southern States near the sea-shore. During the 
OEIOLE AND SERPENT IN SOOTH AMERICA. 
