THE ORCHARD ORIOLE, OR HANG- NEST. 
49 
ioubt from the marked preference which the former manifests to the plains 
in autumn, where a great number are shot or caught in trap cages. It is 
easily kept in cages, where it sings with all the liveliness which it shews in 
its wild state, and may be fed on rice and dry fruits, when fresh ones cannot 
be procured. I have known one of these birds, a beautiful male, kept for 
upwards of four years by a friend of mine at New Orleans. It had been 
raised from the nest, and having passed through the different changes of its 
plumage, had become perfect, was full of action, and sung delightfully. 
The nest represented in the plate was drawn in Louisiana, and was entirely 
composed of grass. It may be looked upon as a sample of the usual form 
and construction. The branch of honey locust on which you see these birds 
belongs to a tree which sometimes grows to a great height, without much 
apparent choice of situation. It is more abundant to the west of the Alle- 
ghanies, and towards the Southern Districts, than in the Middle States. The 
wood is brittle and seldom used. The trunk and branches are frequently 
covered with innumerable long, sharp, and extremely hard spines, protruded 
in every direction, and in some instances placed so near to each other as to 
preclude the possibility of any person’s climbing them. It bears a long 
pod, containing a sweet substance, not unlike that of the honey of bees, and 
which is eaten by children, when it becomes quite ripe. The spines are 
made use of by tobacconists for the purpose of fastening together the different 
twists of their rolls. 
Dr. Bachman informs me, that he has kept this bird in aviaries for several 
years, and that although the birds of this genus are supposed to be of a plain 
colour in winter, he has ascertained that this species at least preserves 
throughout the winter the plumage it possessed in summer. 
In a male preserved in spirits, the roof of the mouth is slightly ascending, 
with two longitudinal ridges ; the posterior aperture of the nares oblongo- 
linear, with the edges papillate ; the upper mandible with three prominent 
lines, and four grooves ; the tongue is 6 twelfths long, sagittate and papillate 
at the base, narrow, channelled above, the tip deeply slit and lacerated. The 
oesophagus is 2 inches 2 twelfths long, its greatest breadth 3 twelfths. The 
stomach is very small, roundish, compressed, 5 twelfths long, \ twelfth 
broad ; its muscles thick, the epithelium thin, tough, longitudinally rugous, 
reddish-brown. The contents of the stomach are insects.' The intestine is 
6 inches long, from 11 twelfths to 1 twelfth in breadth. The coeca 1 twelfth 
long, 4 twelfth broad, 8 twelfths from the extremity. 
The trachea is 14 inches long, much flattened, 1 twelfth broad at the 
upper part ; its rings 65, with 2 dimidiate. Bronchi of about 10 half rings. 
The muscles as in the other species of this group. 
Vol. IY. 7 
