396 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XII, 



the ground in a rotten mangrove stump. April and May are certainly the 

 principal breeding months, I found no end of newly fledged young sitting 

 about the trees in May, but a careful search only resulted in my finding 

 one nest. This was placed on the bracket formed by a parasitic " oak-leaf " 

 fern {Poly podium quercifolium) which was growing against the stem of 

 a jak-tree some fifteen feet from the ground. The nest was composed 

 almost entirely of dry grass, and contained one young one large enough 

 to fly when my fingers touched it as I felt for eggs. I fancy these birds 

 breed in fairly close company where there are suitable trees, as I saw several 

 very young birds in one clump of jak-trees where they, were probably 

 hatched. 



516. Oriolus macrueus, Blyth. Gates, I, p. 503; " Str. Feath.," 

 II, p. 228. 



The Nicobar Oriole is extremely abundant throughout the islands of that 

 group. Its habits in no way differ from those of its congeners. Its note 

 is a long drawn modulated whistle, sounding like " pee-u," 



Car Nicobarese name — " macheon." 



517. Oeiolus andamanensis, Tytler. Gates, I, p. 504; " Str. Feath.," 

 II, p. 226. 



Extremely common throughout the Andamans. I believe the nest has 

 not been described ; I found two, the first, found on May 19th, situated about 

 eight feet from the ground in a small rain-tree {Pithecolobium sp. ?) by the 

 roadside, was a very small and slight nest of the usual Oriole type, and 

 contained one large young one only. The other nest, taken on June 1st, 

 was some fifteen feet from the ground in a Hibiscus of sorts standing some 

 forty yards from the jungle edge, and contained three hard-set eggs. This 

 nest was much larger and more solid than the first, almost double the size ; 

 it was lined with fine roots and fibres, under which was a layer of strips of 

 dead plantain leaf (one of these pieces as large as 6 ins. by 2 ins.) j then came 

 the foundation of dead and skeleton leaves held together and suspended 

 to the fork of the branch by fibres of the cocoanut palm. 



Eggs. — Ground-colour white with a strong pinkish-brown tinge, spotted at 

 the large end with madder-brown, with a few underlying purplish-grey spots. 

 Some of the larger spots have a pinkish-brown nimbus round them, giving 

 them the appearance of having been put on a wet surface and having " run." 



521. Oriolus melanocephalus, Linn. Oates, I, p. 506 ; " Str. Feath.," 

 II, p. 230. 



Davison seemed to think the Black-headed Oriole only a migrant to the 

 islands, as he did not meet with it at all until April, after which it was 

 not uncommon. My experience was exactly the same ; I shot two in May, 

 and saw several between May and July, after which I neither saw nor 

 heard it. Mr. Hume, however, doubts its being only a seasonal visitant, 

 and as Mr. Oates remarks that it is " everywhere a resident in well wooded 



