always there just as the day was
breaking. On the opposite bank was a small open space in the brush
occupied by the limbs of a dead tree. On one of these branches, and
always the same one, was the spot chosen by a Red-rump to pour forth his
morning song. Some mornings I found him busy with his music when I
arrived, and again he would be a few minutes behind me. Sometimes he
would come from one direction, sometimes from another, but he always
alighted at the same spot and then lost no time in commencing his song.
While singing, the body was swayed to and fro, much after the manner of
a canary while singing. The song would last for perhaps half an hour,
and then away the singer would go. I have not enough musical ability to
describe the song, but will say that often I remained standing quietly
for a long time, only that I might listen to the music."

THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.

We find the Golden Oriole in America only. According to Mr. Nuttall, it
is migratory, appearing in considerable numbers in West Florida about
the middle of March. It is a good songster, and in a state of captivity
imitates various tunes.

This beautiful bird feeds on fruits and insects, and its nest is
constructed of blades of grass, wool, hair, fine strings, and various
vegetable fibers, which are so curiously interwoven as to confine and
sustain each other. The nest is usually suspended from a forked and
slender branch, in shape like a deep basin and generally lined with fine
feathers.

"On arriving at their breeding locality they appear full of life and
activity, darting incessantly through the lofty branches of the tallest
trees, appearing and vanishing restlessly, flashing at intervals into
sight from amidst the tender waving foliage, and seem like living gems
intended to decorate the verdant garments of the fresh clad forest."

It is said these birds are so attached to their young that the female
has been taken and conveyed on her eggs, upon which with resolute and
fatal instinct she remained faithfully sitting until she expired.

An Indiana gentleman relates the following story:

"When I was a boy living in the hilly country of Southern Indiana, I
remember very vividly the nesting of a pair of fine Orioles. There stood
in the barn yard a large and tall sugar tree with limbs within six or
eight feet of the ground.

"At about thirty feet above the ground I discovered evidences of an
Oriole's nest. A few days later I noticed they had d