boxes to enable the photographer to do his work.
The half-eaten body of a young garter snake was found about midway
between the upper surface of the nest and the limb above, where it had
been hung up for future use.

[Illustration: From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE.]

THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE.

Baltimore Orioles are inhabitants of the whole of North America, from
Canada to Mexico. They enter Louisiana as soon as spring commences
there. The name of Baltimore Oriole has been given it, because its
colors of black and orange are those of the family arms of Lord
Baltimore, to whom Maryland formerly belonged. Tradition has it that
George Calvert, the first Baron Baltimore, worn out and discouraged
by the various trials and rigours of temperature experienced in his
Newfoundland colony in 1628, visited the Virginia settlement. He
explored the waters of the Chesapeake, and found the woods and shores
teeming with birds, among them great flocks of Orioles, which so
cheered him by their beauty of song and splendor of plumage, that
he took them as good omens and adopted their colors for his own.

When the Orioles first arrive the males are in the majority; they sit
in the spruces calling by the hour, with lonely querulous notes. In a
few days however, the females appear, and then the martial music
begins, the birds' golden trumpeting often turning to a desperate
clashing of cymbals when two males engage in combat, for "the Oriole
has a temper to match his flaming plumage and fights with a will."

This Oriole is remarkably familiar, and fearless of man, hanging its
beautiful nest upon the garden trees, and even venturing into the
street wherever a green tree nourishes. The materials of which its
nest is made are flax, various kinds of vegetable fibers, wool, and
hair, matted together so as to resemble felt in consistency. A
number of long horse-hairs are passed completely through the fibers,
sewing it firmly together with large and irregular, but strong and
judiciously placed stitching. In one of these nests an observer found
that several of the hairs used for this purpose measured two feet in
length. The nest is in the form of a long purse, six or seven inches
in depth, three or four inches in diameter; at the bottom is arranged
a heap of soft material in which the eggs find a warm resting place.
The female seems to be the chief architect, receiving a constant
supply of materials from her mate, occasionally r