s a typical nest-making day, the
sun pouring his bright rays through delicate green leaves and a glory
of white apple blossoms, the air filled with warmth and fragrance,
birds and bees busy everywhere. Orioles seem always happy; to-day they
quite overflowed in the midst of all the brightness, though materials
were scarce and they must needs be diligent.

The female was very industrious, never returning to the nest without
some contribution, while the male frolicked about the trees in his
brilliant orange and black, whistling his warm rich notes, and seeming
like a dash of southern sunshine amidst the blossoms. Sometimes he
stopped in his frolic to find a bit of string, over which he raised an
impromptu _jubilate_, or to fly with his mate to the nest, uttering
that soft rich twitter of his in a mixture of blarney and
congratulation whenever she found some particularly choice material.
But his chief part seemed to be to furnish the celebration, while she
took care of the nest-making.

Out in front of me, under the lee of the old wall whither some
line-stripping gale had blown it, was a torn fragment of cloth with
loose threads showing everywhere. I was wondering why the birds did
not utilize it, when the male, in one of his lively flights,
discovered it and flew down. First he hopped all around it; next he
tried some threads; but, as the cloth was lying loose on the grass,
the whole piece came whenever he pulled. For a few moments he worked
diligently, trying a pull on each side in succession. Once he tumbled
end over end in a comical scramble, as the fragment caught on a grass
stub but gave way when he had braced himself and was pulling hardest.
Quite abruptly he flew off, and I thought he had given up the attempt.

In a minute he was back with his mate, thinking, no doubt, that she,
as a capable little manager, would know all about such things. If
birds do not talk, they have at least some very ingenious ways of
letting one another know what they think, which amounts to the same
thing.

The two worked together for some minutes, getting an occasional
thread, but not enough to pay for the labor. The trouble was that both
pulled together on the same side; and so they merely dragged the bit
of cloth all over the lawn, instead of pulling out the threads they
wanted. Once they unraveled a long thread by pulling at right angles,
but the next moment they were together on the same side again. The
male seemed to do, not as h