I f unable to find a sufficient supply of berries, mulberries, figs, and cherries, of which the Oriole is very fond,
it resorts to caterpillars, worms, insects, and their larvae. During the first few days after their arrival they
utter, especially in the morning and evening, a few detached notes—a kind of prelude to their usual flute-like
cry, which is not poured forth before the 10th o f May, by which time their voice has attained all its force and
variety. From that date until the 15th or 20th o f July they seem to say or only
which is accompanied o r preceded by a kind o f mewing (ouin-imi). I t is this song which has obtained for the
bird the different names by which it is known in Savoy, according to the fancy of those who hear it. Thus
one says it articulates ouriou or louriou, others think it pronounces the words, les censes sont mures (the
cherries are r ip e ) ; it is from the latter that the saying has arisen, * It is the Oriole who eats the cherries and
leaves the stones;’ others, again, affirm that it says, combien det choz voiz ? (how much veal?).” After
enumerating a number o f places in which it breeds, M. Bailly states that it habitually resorts to large trees,
among which it is very difficult o f approach. Sometimes it is attracted within shot by an imitation of its
notes with the mouth or a bird-call; but to be successful the imitation must be perfect, for if a false note
be given, the bird changes its tone, and flies mewing ouin-uin.
The nest is built in high tre e s ; and, during the first fortnight in May, the two sexes work together and
firmly attach it to a bifurcation of the branches, often where they are so flexible that it is shaken by every
wind that blows. They employ pieces of straw and hemp, with spiders’ webs and similar filaments to secure
them to the branches, and to unite the whole together. One o f these threads passes straight from one
branch to the other, and forms the border o f the nest in fro n t; another, rolled underneath, penetrates the
material of the nest, and is wound round the opposite branch to give the work stability. The interior of
the nest is composed of wool, spiders’ webs, caterpillars’ silk, the down of flowers, horsehair, and very fine
blades of grass. As soon as the work is finished, the female deposits four o r five eggs, which are mostly
oblong in form, but some are attenuated, and terminate in a p o in t: they are o f a beautiful rosy white,
spotted with black or brownish black, particularly a t the larger end. The female sits so closely that I
have twice seen her taken from the nest with the hands. The male feeds her while thus occupied, and
takes her place for the few moments she occasionally leaves the nest. The young are hatched about the
seventeenth o r eighteenth d ay ; and the parents feed them with caterpillars, small worms, and sweet and
tender fruits. If the young be taken, the parents continue lamenting for several days, and seem to claim
their progeny by mewing on the very tree on which they were produced. If, during their desolation, they
happen to discover where the captives are, they continue calling to them all day from the summit of the
nearest tre e ; and the captors, recognizing the cry, place the cage with the young on a tree near to their house.
The parents will then give them food through the bars for a time, but cease to do so as soon as they judge
them capable of feeding themselves : this cessation often takes place without being noticed, and the young
are left to die in their prison; when this occurs, the ignorant country-people imagine that the parents have
poisoned them in despair o f ever seeing them again a t liberty.
The young are reared with much difficulty, from a supply of their usual food not being easily procurable;
they may, however, be fed successfully with bread-crumbs, hemp-seed, and kernels pounded together, bits of
raw fresh meat, worms, the larvae o f silk-worms, and dried fruits, which latter must be softened before being
given to them. They soon become familiar and even attached to the person who takes care o f them, and
will eat out of his or her hand.
All the members o f the genus Oriolus are inhabitants of the Old World, none being found in America.
Two or three are natives of Africa, and as many more of India and China; but by far the finest of the whole
are found in the Philippines and the other islands lying southward, as far as Australia. Orioles also occur in
Java and Sumatra. Wherever they are, their habits and economy are very similar. When hanging in
search o f food from the outermost branches o f the green-foliaged trees, which they all do more o r less,
they exhibit many graceful actions. As might be inferred from the lengthened and pointed form of their
wings, they have a quicker and more Swallow-like flight than the true Thrushes.
That the young may be brought up in cages is certain ; for 1 saw four which had been thus reared in the
Zoological Gardens a t Amsterdam. These nestling birds, which had been taken about the 18th o f July,
differed from the adult in the more sombre hue o f their plumage, in having the bill o f a purplish flesh-
colour, the irides dark brown, and their thick and swollen tarsi of a pale blue.
The P late represents a male of the size of life, and contains a reduced figure o f the female and nest. The
latter sex is figured in the colouring usually se en ; but, as mentioned before, it is said that she sometimes
assumes the colouring o f the male. The plant is the common Maple {Acer campestre).