ih
6
f i t
.1
other tail-coverts black: all the lower parts of the body pure
white. The legs, toes and claws, black.
The whole length of the bird five inches and one-eightli.
From the carpal joint to the end of the longest primary three
inches and one-eiglith: the first quill less than half the length
of the second ; which nearly equals the fifth, and is shorter
than the fourth ; the third is the longest in the wing.
An adult male in the breeding season, as represented in
the upper figure of the woodcut, resembles the bird just
described but has the upper part of the head and neck
dark brownisli-black; the back of a decided black; and the
primaries and secondaries brownisli-black.
An adult female, killed in summer, wants the white frontal
patch ; the head, neck, hack, and wing-coverts, dark liair-
brown ; primaries brownish-black; greater coverts and ter-
tials edged with dull white; tail-feathers as in the male,
but less b rig h t: under parts dull white.
A young male of the year, as represented in the lower
figure, killed near London in September, wants the white
frontal m a rk ; the head, neck, back and wing-coverts are
dark hair-brown, as in the female, the last edged with
yellowish-white ; primaries, secondaries and tertials, black;
the latter margined with white, but their edges not so broad
as in the adult male : the tail-feathers precisely as in the
old ma le; chin and under tail-coverts white ; breast, belly
and flanks, dull white tinged with pale brown.
The genus Muscicapa has been split into several divisions,
and, by some authors, the Spotted Flycatcher is made the
type of a genus Butalis and the Red-breasted Flycatcher
that of Erythrosterna. I t does not seem expedient here
to follow the example. Muscicapa collaris, a species much
resembling the present, has been said to have occurred in
this country but proof of the fact is wanting.*
Mr. Edwin Brown has recorded (Mosley's Nat. Hist, of Tutbury, p. 385,
pi. 6) the occurrence in Derbyshire of two examples of Vireosylvia olivacea, a bird
which though often called a Flycatcher belongs to the very distinct and purely
American family Vireonidce—a group having perhaps some affinity to the
Oriolida\
PASSE RES. ORTOUDJE.
O r io l u s g a l b u l a , Linnaeus*.
THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.
Oriolus galbula.
O r io l u s , Linnctus f . —Bill long, conical, and at the base moderately broad,
decurving to the point which is notched ; nostrils basal, lateral, naked, pierced
horizontally in an extended membrane. Wings long, with the first quill short ;
the third or fourth the longest in the wing. Tail moderate, slightly rounded.
Tarsi covered in front with broad scales, shorter than or only as long as the
middle toes, which are joined at the base to the outer toes.
L ik e the species last described, though much more rare,
the Golden Oriole is also a summer-visitor to Britain, a few
Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 160.
VOL. I.
f Lor. cit.
II H
I