inches diameter, and seven inches in depth, rounded at botThe opening at top is narrowed, by a horizontal covering, to two inches and a half in diameter. The materials are flax, hemp, tow, hair, and wool, woven into a complete cloth; the whole tightly sewed through and through with long horse hairs, several of which measure two feet in length. The bottom is composed of thick tufts of cow hair, sewed also with strong horse hair. This nest was hung on the extemity of the horizontal branch of an apple-tree, fronting the south-east; was visible one hundred yards off, though shaded by the sun; and was the work of a very beautiful and perfect bird. The eggs are five, white, slightly tinged with flesh colour, marked on the greater end with purple dots, and on the other parts with long hair-like lines, intersecting each other in a variety of directions. I am thus minute in these particulars, from a wish to point out the specific difference between the true and bastard Baltimore, which Dr. Latham and some others suspect to be only the same bird in different stages of colour.

So solicitous is the Baltimore to procure proper materials for his 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 out bleaching, and the farmer to secure his young grafts; as the Baltimore finding the former, and the strings which tie the latter, so well adapted for his purpose, frequently carries off both; or should the one be too heavy, and the other too firmly tied, he will tug at them a considerable time before he gives up the attempt. Skeins of silk, and hanks of thread, have been often found, after the leaves were fallen, hanging round the Baltimore's nest; but so woven up, and entangled, as to be entirely irreclaimable. Before the introduction of Europeans, no such material could have been obtained here; but with the sagacity of a good architect, he has improved this circumstance to his advantage; and the strongest and best materials are uniformly found in those parts by which the whole is supported.

Their principal food consists of caterpillars, beetles and bugs,

particularly one of a brilliant glossy green, fragments of which I have almost always found in their stomach, and sometimes these only.

The song of the Baltimore is a clear mellow whistle, repeated at short intervals as he gleans among the branches. There is in it a certain wild plaintiveness and naïveté, extremely interesting. It is not uttered with the rapidity of the ferruginous thrush (Turdus rufus), and some other eminent songsters; but with the pleasing tranquillity of a careless plough-boy, whistling merely for his own amusement. When alarmed by an approach to his nest, or any such circumstances, he makes a kind of rapid chirruping, very different from his usual note. This, however, is always succeeded by those mellow tones, which seem so congenial to his nature.

High on yon poplar, clad in glossiest green,
The orange, black-capp'd Baltimore is seen,
The broad extended boughs still please him best;
Beneath their bending skirts he hangs his nest;
There his sweet mate, secure from every harm,
Broods o'er her spotted store, and wraps them warm;

Lists to the noontide hum of busy bees,

Her partner's mellow song, the brook, the breeze;
These, day by day, the lonely hours deceive,
From dewy morn to slow descending eve.
Two weeks elaps'd, behold a helpless crew!
Claim all her care and her affection too;

On wings of love th' assiduous nurses fly,

Flowers, leaves and boughs, abundant food supply;
Glad chants their guardian as abroad he goes,

And waving breezes rock them to repose.

The Baltimore inhabits North America, from Canada to Mexico, and is even found as far south as Brazil. Since the streets of our cities have been planted with that beautiful and stately tree, the Lombardy poplar, these birds are our constant visiters during the early part of summer; and amid the noise and tumult of coaches, drays, wheelbarrows, and the din of the multitude, they are heard chanting" their native wood notes

wild;" sometimes too within a few yards of an oysterman, who stands bellowing with the lungs of a Stentor, under the shade of the same tree; so much will habit reconcile even birds to the roar of the city, and to sounds and noises, that in other circumstances, would put a whole grove of them to flight.

These birds are several years in receiving their complete plumage. Sometimes the whole tail of a male individual, in spring, is yellow, sometimes only the two middle feathers are black, and frequently the black on the back is skirted with orange, and the tail tipt with the same colour. Three years, I have reason to believe, are necessary to fix the full tint of the plumage, and then the male bird appears as already described.

ORIOLUS BALTIMORUS

BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

[Plate LIII.-Fig. 4. Female.]

THE history of this beautiful species has been already particularly detailed; to this representation of the female, drawn of half the size of nature, a few particulars may be added. The males generally arrive several days before the females, saunter about their wonted places of residence, and seem lonely and less sprightly than after the arrival of their mates. In the spring and summer of 1811, a Baltimore took up its abode in Mr. Bartram's garden, whose notes were so singular as particularly to attract my attention; they were as well known to me as the voice of my most intimate friend. On the thirtieth of April, 1812, I was again surprised and pleased at hearing this same Baltimore in the garden, whistling his identical old chant; and I observed that he particularly frequented that quarter of the garden where the tree stood, on the pendent branches of which he had formed his nest the preceding year. This nest had been taken possession of by the House Wren, a few days after the Baltimore's brood had abandoned it; and curious to know how the little intruder had furnished it within, I had taken it down early in the fall, after the Wren herself had also raised a brood of six young in it, and which was her second that season. I found it stript of its original lining, floored with sticks, or small twigs, above which were laid feathers; so that the usual complete nest of the Wren occupied the interior of that of the Baltimore.

The chief difference between the male and female Baltimore Oriole, is the superior brightness of the orange colour of the former to that of the latter. The black on the head, upper part of

the back and throat, of the female, is intermixed with dull orange; whereas in the male those parts are of a deep shining black; the tail of the female also wants the greater part of the black, and the whole lower parts are of a much duskier orange.

I have observed that these birds are rarely seen in pine woods, or where these trees generally prevail. On the ridges of our high mountains, they are also seldom to be met with. In orchards, and on well cultivated farms, they are most numerous, generally preferring such places to build in, rather than the woods or forest.