OEioLUS. 359 



Lieut. II. E. Barnes, writing of Rajpootana in general, tells us 

 that this Oriole breeds during July and August. 



Mr. C. J. W. Taylor, speaking of Manzeerabad in Mysore, says: — 

 " Abundant in the plains. Kare in the higher portions of the 

 district. Breeding in June and July." 



The eggs are typically a moderately elongated oval, tapering a 

 good deal towards one end, but they vary much in shape as well 

 as size. Some are pyriform, and some very long and cylindrical, 

 quite the shape of the egg of a Cormorant or Solan Goose, or that 

 of a Diver. They are always of a pure excessively glossy china- 

 white, which, when they are fresh and unblown, appears suffused 

 with a delicate salmon-pink, caused by the partial translucency of 

 the shell. Well-defined spots and specks, typically black, are more 

 or less thinly sprinkled over the surface of the egg, chiefly at the 

 large end. Normally, as I said, the spots are black and sharply 

 detined, and there are neither blotches nor splashes, but numerous 

 variations occur. Sometimes, as in an egg sent me by Mr. Nunn, 

 all the spots are pale yellowish brown. Sometimes, as in an egg 

 I took at Bareilly, a few spots of this colour are mingled with the 

 black ones. Deep reddish brown often takes the place of the 

 typical black, and the spots are not very unfrequently surrounded 

 by a more or less extensive brownish-pink nimbus, which in one 

 egg I have is so extensive that the ground-colour of the whole of 

 the large end appears to be a delicate pink. Occasionally several 

 of the clear-cut spots appear to run together and form a coarse 

 irregular blotch, and oue egg I possess exhibits on one side a large 

 splash. The eggs as a body, as might have been expected, closely 

 resemble those of the Golden Oriole, to which the bird itself is so 

 nearly related ; and as observed by Professor Newton in regard to 

 the eggs of that species, so in nij large series, the prevalence of 

 greatly elongated examples is remarkable. 



The eggs vary in length from 1-03 to 1-32, and from 0*75 to 

 0-87 in breadth ; but the average of fifty eggs measured was 1*11 

 by 0-81. 



521. Oriolus melanoceplialus (Linn.). The Indian Black- 

 headed Oriole. 



Oriolus melanocephalus, Linn., Jerd. B. Ifid. ii, p. 110; Hume, 



Rough Draft N. 8)- E. no. 472. 

 Oriolus ceylonensis, Bonap., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 111. 



I have already noticed (' Stray leathers,' vol. i, p. 439) how 

 impossible it is to draw any hard-and-fast line, in practice, between 

 this the so-called " Bengal Black-headed Oriole " and the supposed 

 distinct southern species, 0. ceylonensis, Bp. 



The present species certainly breeds in suitable {i. e. well-wooded 

 and not too bare or arid) localities throughout Northern and 

 Central India, Assam, and Burma, and I have specimens from 

 Mahableshwar, from the Nilgiris, and e\en Anjango, that are 



