232 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE MEADOW STABLING. 

 (Stumella magna.) 



Plate 54, Fig. 17. 



One of these birds was seen in Norfolk in October, 1854, and 

 another was shot in Suffolk in March, 1860, whilst a third has 

 been obtained near Cheltenham. It is common in the Eastern 

 States of North America, being migratory in the north. It 

 frequents pasture land, is very rarely found in woods, and is 

 celebrated for the sweetness of its song. 



The nest is domed, and is always built on the ground. 



The eggs are four or five in number, white in ground-colour, 

 spotted all over, but principally at the larger end, with conspicuous 

 reddish-brown blotches. The underlying spots are generally some- 

 what indistinct, but occasionally they form an important feature 

 in the egg, and are slate-grey. 



THE GOLDEN OEIOLE. 

 (Oriolus galbula.) 



Plate 54, Fig. 20. 



The Golden Oriole breeds throughout most parts of the con- 

 tinent of Europe south of the Baltic, though comparatively few 

 remain to spend the summer in the extreme south. It seems 

 probable that the Golden Oriole was never much more than an 

 accidental summer visitor, or at most a rare straggler during the 

 breeding-season, to our islands. 



The nest is always suspended from the fork of a horizontal 

 branch, sometimes of a pine tree, but generally of an oak, and is 

 usually placed from twenty to thirty feet above the ground. The 

 outside is composed of broad sedges and strips of inner bark, 

 which are wrapped round the two branches forming the fork, from 

 which the nest is pendant. I have generally found intertwined 

 with these long narrow strips a few withered leaves, and almost 

 invariably a scrap or two of a newspaper. The lining is com- 

 posed of slender round grass-stalks, very frequently with the 

 flower of the grass attached. 



