322 
THE ORCHARD ORIOLE. 
The Bronzed Grakle is a variety of the Purple. It breeds in Maine, and in Illinois it is 
resident throughout the year. 
The Florida Grakle is much smaller, and seems to be confined to the peninsula of Florida. 
It is also regarded as a variety of the Purple Grrakle. 
• 
The Busty Blackbird (8 colecophagus ferrugineus) is a visitor in New England during 
the spring and fall months, when migrating. In Virginia and southwards, these birds are very 
abundant in the winter. They also extend westward. Occasionally they have been found 
breeding in Maine. This blackbird is unsocial and retiring, and on that account is not often 
seen. It visits the low, swampy thickets. 
Brewer’s Blackbird {Seolecophagus breweri ), named for Dr. Brewer, the eminent 
ornithologist of Boston, Massachusetts, is found on the high, western plains, and thence to the 
Pacific, and southwards to California and Mexico. It is considerably larger than the preceding. 
HANG-NEST BIRDS. 
The Icteresle, or Hang-nest Birds, now claim our attention. These birds are remarkable 
for the hammock-like nest which they construct, and the wonderful skill with which they 
adapt its structure to the exigencies of the climate or locality. 
Oxe of the most familiar examples of these birds is the Orchard Oriole, popularly 
known by the title of Bobolink throughout the countries which it inhabits. 
This bird, in common with other allied species, is so extremely varied in its plumage, 
according to its age and sex, that several species were confounded together in the most per- 
plexing manner, until Wilson succeeded, by dint of patient observation, in unravelling the 
tangled web which had been woven by other writers. 
The nest of the Orchard Oriole is a truly wonderful structure, woven into a bag or purse- 
like shape from long grasses, almost as if it had been fashioned in a loom, and so firmly con- 
structed that it will withstand no small amount of rough treatment before its texture gives 
way. In one of these purse-like nests now lying before me, I find that the bird often employs 
two and sometimes three threads simultaneously, and that several of these double threads pass 
over the branch to which the nest is hung, and are then carried to the very bottom of the 
purse, so as to support the structure in the firmest possible manner. The entrance is from 
above, and near the mouth ; the nest is comparatively slight in texture, becoming thicker and 
more compact near the foot, where the eggs and young are laid. The interior of the nest is 
generally lined with some soft, downy seeds. So admirably does the bird’s beak weave this 
remarkable nest, that an old lady to whom Wilson exhibited one of these structures, remarked 
that the Orchard Oriole might learn to darn stockings. 
The size and form of the nest may vary very greatly according to the climate in which the 
bird lives, and the kind of tree on which its home is placed. Should the nest be suspended to 
the firm, stiff boughs of the apple or other strong-branched tree, it is comparatively shallow, 
being hardly three inches in length, and rather wider than it is deep. But if it should be 
hung to the long and slender twigs of the weeping willow, as is often the case, the nest is 
lengthened until it is four or five inches in depth, the size of the entrance remaining the same 
as in the shallower nest. This variation in structure is evidently intended to prevent the eggs 
or young from being shaken out of their home by the swaying of the boughs in the wind. 
The same amount of material appears to be used in either case, so that the elongated nest is 
not so thick as the short one. My own specimen is an example of the elongated structure. 
Moreover, in the warmer parts of America, the nest is always much slighter than in the colder 
regions, permitting a free circulation of air through its walls. 
The habits of this bird are very curious and interesting, and are well described by Wilson 
in his well-known work on the Birds of America : — 
