Correspondence. 
Editor of O. & O. : . - 
1 think Mr. Alden Loring’s curious double 
Oriole’s nest (described in your June number) 
is an instance of a bird’s attempt to build in 
the same place where her brood was raised the 
year before. The new nest was probably 
fastened to the other as a matter of con- 
venience. Last year I found what seemed at 
first a whole colony of Oriole’s nests, built 
close together on hanging branches. Looking 
closer I saw there were five nests with a 
gradation in looks from the oldest dilapi- 
dated structure down to the last nest, which 
was new, and contained eggs. They were all 
somewhat beyond the reach of a person on 
foot, and the bird (or birds) had perhaps 
nested there undisturbed for years. 
However, I am very chary of expressing 
any positive opinion on the freaks, so called, of 
that strangely intelligent workman, the Oriole. 
I have no doubt they have their reasons for 
things, which we know little about. 
I have a nest of Bullock’s Oriole (Icterus 
bullocki ) taken May 7, from pendant twigs 
forty-four feet up in a eucalyptus tree, which 
is a puzzling curiosity. The nest proper is 
built chiefly of liorse-hair, in the usual fashion, 
but the singular thing about it is, that woven 
to one side of the top is a long irregular flap, 
built also of horse-liair with fibres of rope and 
string. This remarkable appendage formed in 
the tree a sort of platform, at a slightly oblique 
angle, stretching back from the nest. Its length 
is 9% inches, and its shape somewhat like that 
of a decanter, with the larger part next the 
nest. From this platform there is a gradual 
slope into the nest, very like a stair-case, 
with a protecting bulwark on the side, two 
inches high, which was evidently built on 
with the platform, after the completion of the 
real nest. 
That the mother-bird had an object in 
building her nest as described I feel certain. 
What was the trend of her thought (?) in its 
construction I leave the reader to determine. 
I have my own opinion. Ilarry It. Taylor. 
Alameda, Cal., July 17, 1889. 
Q.&o. XlZvfy . 1889 p. / W 
Californian Notes. 
I Poway Valley , twenty-two miles from 
San Diego City. 
* 
(Continued from page 137.) 
Bullock’s Oriole ( Icterus bullocki ), very- 
common; nests ready about the same time 
as the Hooded. It is a pretty sight to see 
the males of the Hooded courting the fe- 
males. They will hop up and down a 
branch, following one another backward 
and forward, drawing themselves out to 
their full length and giving their long, 
slender tails a short jerk from side to 
side. A very low note is heard all this 
time, but no feather pulling like the fe- 
males when after one another. 
Tf-.Q 
O.&O. IX. Dec. 1884 , 
