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 MAR. I903 } THE CONDOR 4 small leaf-twig. There are no other supports whatever. This was taken from a sycamore at an elevation of almost twenty feet and was near the end of a some- what drooping branch where it was well hidden by the large leaves. This also has wild oats for its chief material, the stems being woven closely into the nest itself leaving the heads to stand out for a couple of inches all around. Inside them is grass and quite a little willow cotton at the bottom and a few horse hairs woven in. In its dimensions it is also unusual: depth, outside, 4 inches, inside 3; diameter out- side, 5, inside, 3; circumference, t 3. This nest is so radically different from the ordinary nest of the species that one cannot help wondering what spirit of retro- gression (one might say) possessed its little builders. The third nest is of the semi-pensile type, but shows a skill in its manufac- ture that places its builders as far ahead of the ordinary semi-pensile architects as are the weavers of the truly pensile type. Then first seen by me at the top of a small willow sapling I took it to be a swarm of bees and regretted that my collect- ing outfit did not contain suitable apparatus for gathering them in, for I do not like to have the little busy bee waste its sweetness on the desert air and in hollow trees if I can very well prevent it and besides hollow trees are much better adapted to screech owls. The resemblance to a swarm was very great and I was within thirty feet of it before a female oriole flying from the nest showed me my error. It was placed betweeu the two branches of a nearly upright fork in the very top of a small clump of willows, about twelve feet from the ground. One small branch was completely buried in the nest for nearly its whole length, the other secured to it at the top, a little above and a little below the middle and lying close against the nest all the way. The top is rather flaring, being built out to the numerous leaf-twigs, many of which with their leaves are worked in on the top and back. The material used in its construction is wholly shreds of dry grass and of the bark of weed stems, the general color effect being very dark throughout. There are a few pieces of the stems on the outside with the bark par- tially detached and woven in, the stems hanging loose. For scientific weaving this nest is a marvel and resembles fine crochet work more than anything. The average nest of the Bullock oriole will have bits of string and plenty of horse hair wven in to bind and strengthen it, but this has nothing of the sort. I can not find even one piece of horse hair in the whole nest, nothing but fine and ap- parcurly short shreds of grasses and weeds. Holding it before a light oue can plaiuly see the longer foundation lines running through and the marvelous way in which it is all worked together. All the length of the nest the sides are thin and of the same delicate workmanship, the bottom is harder and thicker, but the same material is used throughout. The builders of this nest were the most won- derfully skilled workers of their species that I ever saw and were doubtless old and experienced; no novices could ever have constructed such a nest. The photo- graph, while showing well the remarkable shape and size fails to give a perfect idea of the fine weaving and material, that only an examination of the nest itself can do. For c(mparison I have included in a photograph the nest of another pair of orioles that can fairly be called an average nest, both for size, manner of con- struction and materials and also attachment to the branch. The neasurements of both nests are here given: depth inside, nest 3, 9 inches; average nest 4 inches; depth outside, nest 3, 97 inches; average nest 6 inches; diameterinside nest 3, 3 inches; average nest 3 inches; diameter outside, nest 3, 4 inches; average nest, 3 inches; greatest circumference, nest 3, xa inches; average nest, za inches. In