stragglers being observed almost every year, but always
between spring and autumn. This bird makes its annual
visit to the European continent from the countries south of
the Mediterranean in the month of April, and returns in
September. I t is at the end of April or the beginning of
May that specimens are usually obtained on our southern
coast; and from those that pass over France and Germany
in a north-western direction, an example is occasionally procured
in the maritime counties of our eastern coast.
Very little is known of the habits of the Golden Oriole in
this country; for the brilliant plumage of the male always
attracts attention, and, though being really far from rare, it
is almost invariably pursued with the greatest eagerness and
shot down by some of those persons who imagine that they
are thereby aiding the cause of natural history; fortunately
greater facilities for its observation occur 011 the Continent,
and in Italy particularly these birds are common.
Bechstein says, they generally frequent lonely groves, or
the skirts of forests, always keeping among the most bushy
trees, so that it is rarely seen on a naked branch. They
always frequent orchards in the fruit season. Vieillot also
says that they frequent wooded countries, are shy and
difficult to approach. These birds, he adds, are sometimes
deceived by an expert sportsman, who advances towards
them whistling their note ; but the ear of the bird is so
correct that a single mistake or false note, made in the
imitation of his song, is a sufficient hint to the bird, and he
takes wing instantly. Swainson, speaking of the habits of
the Orioles generally, says, they live in small flocks, fly well,
and frequent high trees, among the foliage of which they
seek for caterpillars, soft insects, and fruits.
The Golden Oriole is the only European species of the
genus, and its flat and saucer-shaped nest is very different
in the style of its architecture from those of nearly all other
birds, being placed in and suspended under 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, fibres of roots and long slender stems of grass,
X L V Li I w m rnw w m m w m nm n
which are so curiously interwoven as mutually to confine
and sustain each other ; the lining consists of the flowering
heads of grasses. The vignette at the end of this article
represents a nest of this bird, taken from a specimen sent to
the Zoological Society by Professor Passerini of Florence.
Another nest of this bird, said to have been taken in
Suffolk, and exactly resembling the one just mentioned, is
represented in Meyer’s ‘ Illustrations of British Birds.’ The
eggs are usually four or five in number, measuring from
1-4 to 1-1 by from -9 to ’78 in., and are of a shining white or
warm cream-colour, with a few very dark reddish-purple spots
and a few grey specks, which are often confluent and blurred
at the edges. The female is said to be so tenacious of
her eggs as to suffer herself to be taken with the nest.
Bechstein says that the parents rear but one brood in a
season. The" food of this species is various, consisting of
insects and their larvæ, with figs, cherries, grapes, and other
fruits in their season.
The voice of the Golden Oriole is loud, full and flute-like.
From its call-note some of the common names by which this
bird is known in various countries of Europe, and especially
in certain parts of France and Spain, have been thought to
be derived, but it would rather seem that they are corruptions
of the Latin aureolus, and have reference to the golden
colour of the plumage.* Of quite other origin, however,
are certain names given to this species in Germany, of which
Weidwall and Witwell will serve as examples. With these
is clearly cognate the English “ Witwall, though when this
is nowadays used at all it is applied to the Green V ood-
pecker, probably as the bird which by its colouis most
recalled to our Teutonic forefathers the continental species
so familiar to them.
In April, 1824, a young male in its third stage of plumage,
to be presently described in full, was shot at Aldershot, in-.
Hampshire, and having been purchased by the late Dr.
Thackeray, by whom it was obligingly lent for the use of
* See the word Loriot in Littré’s ‘ Dictionaire de la Langue Française,’ 11.