OnCHARD ORIOLE. 
189 
and flexible grass, knit, or sewed tlirongh and 
rough ill a thousand direetions, as if actually done 
'fh a needle. Au old lady of my acquaintance, to 
,,. "***> I was one day shewing this curious fabrication, 
er admiring its texture tor some time, asked me, in 
.tone betneeii joke and earne.vt, whether I did not 
.j^'nk it possible to learn these birds to darn stockings ? 
ftis nest is hemispherical, three inches deep by four in 
j''radth; the concavity scarcelj^ two inches deep by two 
diameter. I had the curiosily to detach one of the 
. “res, or stalks of dried grass, from the nest, and found 
i. to measure thirteen inches in length, and in that 
’stance was thirty-four times hooked through and 
.^turned, winding round and round the nest! The 
P^'ide is usually composed of the light downy appen- 
ytSfes attached to the seeds of the Vlaiumis occidcntalis, 
jf hutton-wood, ivhich form a very soft and commo- 
'ous lied. Here and there the outward work is 
J^teiided to an adjoining twig, round which it is 
wongly twisted, to give more stability to the whole, 
'‘d prevent it from being overset by the wind. 
^ when they choose the long pemlent branches of the 
Roping willow to build in, as they frequently do, the 
though formed of the same materials, is made 
^^le.h deeper, and of slighter texture. The circumfe- 
is marked out by a number of these pensile 
that descend on each side like ribs, sujiporting 
whole ; their thick foliage, at the same time, com- 
(ljP*'*l}' concealing the nest from view. The depth in 
case is increased to four or live inches, and the 
Ij^dole is made much slighter. These long- pendent 
ji^'*®ches, being sometimes twelve and even lifteen feet 
% 
'■'igth, have a large sweep in the wind, and render 
*'''’‘t of these precautions necessary, to prevent the 
^ .VORog from being thrown out ; and the close 
fjiptor afforded by the remarkable thickness of the 
is, no doubt, the cause of the latter. Two of 
nests, such as I have here described, are now 
before me, and exhibit not only art in the con- 
‘‘otion, but judgment in adapting their fabrication 
