The Golden Oriole is the only European species of the
genus, and its nest is very different in shape from those of
some of its foreign congeners, which are elongated, purse-like,
and pendant. The nest of the Golden Oriole is rather flat
and saucer-shaped, generally placed in the horizontal fork of a
bough of a tree, to both branches of which it is firmly attached.
The materials used to form the nest are sheep’s
wool and long slender stems of grass, which are so curiously
interwoven as mutually to confine and sustain each other.
The vignette at the end of this article represents a nest of
this bird, taken, by permission, from a specimen presented
to the Zoological Society by Professor Passerini of Florence.
Another nest of this bird, exactly resembling the one just
referred to in form, materials, and structure, is represented
by Mr. Meyer in his ee Illustrations of British Birds,” from
a nest taken in Suffolk; and I have been told that Mr.
Scales of Beecham Well had eggs of the Golden Oriole in
his collection which had been taken in Norfolk. The eonsors
are usually four or five in number, one inch two lines long
and ten lines in breadth, of a white colour slightly tinged
with purple, and with a few distinct spots of ash-grey and
claret colour. The female is said to be so tenacious of her
eggs as to suffer herself to be taken with the nest. A writer
in the Naturalist mentions having seen a pair of young
birds in nearly full plumage exhibited for sale in the public
market at Cologne, for which he was asked the moderate sum
of three shillings. Bechstein says that the parent birds rear
but one brood in a season; which helps to account for the
scarcity of this very handsome bird. The food of this species
is various, consisting of insects and their larvae, with figs,
cherries, grapes, and other fruits in their season.
The voice of the Oriole is said to be loud : Bechstein considers
it to be full and flute-like; its call-note, he says, is well
expressed by the term puhlo. The Spaniards call this bird
T u r io l; the French, L o rio t; the English, Oriole ;—all of
which are said to have some resemblance to the sound of the
bird’s call-note, and to have given origin to its name.*
In April 1824, a young male in its third state of plumage
was obtained at Aldershot in Hampshire. When shot, it
was in company with some Blackbirds. This specimen was
purchased and preserved for the Rev. Dr. G. Thackeray, the
Provost of King’s College, Cambridge, by whom it has been
most obligingly lent me for my use in this work. Two
examples are recorded by Dr. Moore to have been killed in
Devonshire. By a communication from Mr. Couch of
Polperro, I find that several specimens have been obtained
in Cornwall; Montagu, in his Supplement, also mentions
two instances ; and Mr. E. H. Rodd has sent me a notice
of one shot in 1883 near the Lands End. Pennant has
recorded one shot in South Wales. One was shot in Gorton
Fields, near Manchester, in July 1811; and another was shot
in Quermore Park, near Lancaster, which is now pieserved in
the Museum of that town. For this last communication I
am indebted to Mr. T. Howitt, jun. From Mr. Thompson’s
contributions to the Natural History of Ireland, we find
that five specimens have been obtained in different parts of
that country since the year 1817.
In Surrey, the Golden Oriole has been seen near Walton
by Mr. Meyer, whose name has been mentioned in reference
to the nest; and a specimen of the bird was shot near Go-
dalmin in 1838. In the summer of the same year, a fine
example of this beautiful bird was seen for several successive
days in the garden of William Harrison, Esq. at Chesliunt.
Some years since, two of these birds were taken near Sax-
mundham in Suffolk, and were in the possession of Mr.
* The generic term, however, like that of Icterus, for a genus closely allied,
is probably intended to have reference to the prevailing yellow colour of the
birds.