THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE. 
51 
male bird ; who, with this aid, completed his labour in a very 
short time, and frequently sung in a very ludicrous manner, 
while his mouth was loaded with a mass larger than his 
head. So eager are they to obtain fibrous materials, that 
they will readily tug at, and even untie hard knots made of 
tow. In Audubon's magnificent plates, a nest is represented 
as formed outwardly of the long-moss ; where this abounds, 
of course, the labour of obtaining materials must be greatly 
abridged. The author likewise remarks, that the whole 
fabric consists almost entirely of this material, loosely inter- 
woven, without any warm lining, a labour which our inge- 
nious artist seems aware would be superfluous in the warm 
forests of the lower Mississippi. A female, which I observed 
'attentively, carried off to her nest a piece of lamp-wick ten 
or twelve feet long. This long string, and many other 
shorter ones, were left hanging out for about a week before 
both the ends were wattled into the sides of the nest. Some 
other little birds, making use of similar materials, at times 
twitched these flowing ends, and generally brought out the 
busy Baltimore from her occupation in great anger. 
The haste and eagerness of one of these airy architects, 
which I accidentally observed on the banks of the Susque- 
hanna, appeared likely to prove fatal to a busy female, who, 
in weaving, got a loop round her neck, and no sooner was 
she disengaged from this snare, than it was slipped round 
her feet, and thus held her fast beyond the power of escape ! 
The male came frequently to the scene, now changed from 
