ORIOLID.^. 



145 



THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



Oriolus galbula, Linnffius. 



This handsome bird is an annual spring-migrant to Cornwall 

 and the Scilly Islands, where as many as forty have been seen in 

 a single April, and it is an irregular but not infrequent visitor to 

 the southern and eastern counties of England ; while nests have 

 been found— or the birds seen under circumstances which left little 

 doubt that they were breeding — in Norfolk, Essex, Hertfordshire, 

 Northamptonshire, Surrey, and especially in Kent. The most 

 authentic instances have been at Dumpton Park, Isle of Thanet, where 

 a pair of birds, protected by the proprietor, Mr. Bankes Tomlin, 

 reared a brood (Harting, 'Our Summer Migrants,' p. 268) in 1874, 

 and again in 1875. ^^^ ^ •'"1'^' however, the bright plumage of this 

 bird attracts the attention of the destroyer, and the species is thus 

 prevented from nesting with us annually, as it would otherwise do ; 

 for migrants generally return to the localities in which they were 



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