94 
SINGIXG BIRDS. 
northern migrations, like those of the Baltimore bird, are per- 
formed by day, and that the males arrive a week or ten days 
sooner than their mates. They appear to affect the elevated 
and airy regions of the Alleghany mountains, where they are 
much more numerous than the Baltimore. 
The Orchard Oriole is an exceedingly active, sprightly, and 
restless bird ; in the same instant almost, he is on the ground 
after some fallen insect, fluttering amidst the foliage of the 
trees, prying and springing after his lurking prey, or flying and 
tuning his lively notes in a manner so hurried, rapid, and 
seemingly confused that the ear is scarce able to thread out 
the shrill and lively tones of his agitated ditty. Between these 
hurried attempts he also gives others, which are distinct and 
agreeable, and not unlike the sweet warble of the Red-Breasted 
Grosbeak, though more brief and less varied. In choosing the 
situation of his nest he is equally familiar with the Baltimore 
Oriole, and seems to enjoy the general society of his species, 
suspending his most ingenious and pensile fabric from the 
bending twig of the apple-tree, which, like the nest of the 
other, is constructed in the form of a pouch from three to five 
inches in depth, according to the strength or flexibility of the 
tree on which he labors ; so that in a weeping-willow, according 
to Wilson, the nest is one or two inches deeper than if in an 
apple-tree, to obviate the danger of throwing out the eggs and 
young by the sweep of the long, pendulous branches. It is 
likewise slighter, as the crowding leaves of that tree afford a 
natural shelter of considerable thickness. That economy of 
this kind should be studied by the Orchard Oriole will scarcely 
surprise so much as the laborious ingenuity and beautiful tissue 
of Its nest. It is made exteriorly of a fine woven mat of long, 
tough, and flexible grass, as if darned with a needle. The 
form is hemispherical, and the inside is lined with downy 
substances, sometimes the wool of the seeds of the Button- 
wood, forming thus a commodious and soft bed for the young. 
This precaution of a warm lining, as in the preceding species 
is, according to Audubon, dispensed with in the warm climate 
of Louisiana. The eggs are 4 or 5, of a very pale bluish 
