THE ORIOLE. 
71 
a few yards of the house. My friend, Edward E. Hale, told me once that the 
Oriole rejected from his web all strands of brilliant colour, and thought it a striking 
example of that instinct of concealment noticeable in many birds, though it should 
seem in this instance that the nest was amply protected by its position from all 
marauders but owls and squirrels. Last year, however, I had the fullest proof that 
Mr. Hale was mistaken. A pair of Orioles built on the lowest trailer of a weeping 
elm, which hung within ten feet of our drawing-room window, and so low that I 
could reach it from the ground. The nest was wholly woven and felted with 
ravellings of woollen carpet, in which scarlet predominated. Would the same thing 
have happened in the woods? Or did the nearness of a human dwelling perhaps 
give the birds a greater feeling of security? They are very bold, by the way, in 
quest of cordage, and I have often watched them stripping the fibrous bark from 
a honeysuckle growing over the very door.”* The species here described may be 
the Baltimore Oriole (Uphantes Baltimore ), a bird beautifully clothed in brilliantly 
contrasted orange and black plumage, which is common through the vast extent of 
country reaching from Canada to Brazil; or from mention of the domes of the 
nests, the Crested Oriole (Cacicus cristatus). This is as large as a jackdaw; the 
greater part of its body is chocolate colour, the wings are dark green, and the outer 
tail feathers bright yellow. The beak is remarkable, being of a bright green colour, 
extending far up into the forehead. It builds a pensile nest, fastened to the end 
of a bough, and is fond of man and his habitations, so that its habits are easily 
watched. Yet another American Oriole is well known to readers of the literature 
of that country, the Orchard Oriole or Bobolink {Xanthornis varius). This, too, 
is a beautifully marked bird, though its colours are extremely variable. The upper 
plumage of the adult male is mostly a deep black, the breast is black and chestnut- 
red, while the under parts are the same, tipped with white. It loves the neighbour¬ 
hood and protection of man, and is fond of building in orchards. Its nest is built 
so as to hang from a pendent bough, very often the branch of a weeping willow. 
“Almost the whole genus of Orioles,” says Wilson, “belong to America, and with 
a few exceptions build pensile nests.” With reference to the Baltimore Oriole, he 
adds some particulars which may be here subjoined to close the account of its 
cousin the Golden Oriole—“ So solicitous is it to procure proper materials for its 
nest that in the season of building, the women in the country are under the 
necessity of narrowly watching their thread that may chance to be bleaching, and 
the farmer to secure his young grafts, as the Baltimore, finding the former and the 
* “My Study Windows,” by J. R. Lowell (Sampson Low and Co.), 1871, p. 12. 
