108 BIRDS OP INDIA. 



it is to be found, at all seasons, in every part of the country in 

 small numbers. It prefers a well-wooded country, but not deep 

 forests ; and lives in large groves of trees, gardens, and avenues. 

 It chiefly feeds on fruit, especially on the figs of the Banian and 

 PaJcur, on Mulberries, &e., also occasionally on caterpillars, and 

 other soft-bodied insects. Its flight is strong, but undulating, 

 with interrupted flappings. Its call is a loud mellow whistle, 

 something resembling pee-ho ; and the voice of the European 

 Oriole must be very similar, as it is given as ^uh-lo and hillow ; 

 and the French name Loriot is said to be also given from its call. 



I have seen the nest several times, and I described one in my 

 Illustration of Indian Ornithology, under 0. indicus, as follows : — 

 " It was a cup-shaped nest, slightly made with fine grass and 

 roots, and suspended from a rather high branch by a few long fibres 

 of o-rass ; these did not surround the nest but only supported it on 

 two sides. It contained three eggs, white, spotted, chiefly at the 

 larce end, with a very few large dark purple blotches." I procured 

 a nest at Sau^-or, from a high branch of a banian tree in cantonment. 

 It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots 

 and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and 

 suspended by a long roll of cloth about | inch wide, which it 

 must have pilferred from the neighbouring verandah, where the 

 tailor worked. This strip was wound round each fork, then 

 passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other fork and again 

 brought round the nest, to the opposite side ; there were four or 

 five of these supports on each side. It Avas, indeed, a most curious 

 nest and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till 

 the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The eggs 

 were, as before described, white, with a few dark claret-colored 

 spots. Burgess describes a nest made of grass, spiders' web, 

 hemp, and pieces of paper, placed in the fork of a tree, and two of 

 the branches were bound together with the hemp. Theobald 

 also found the nest, a neat cup of woven grass, attached by its 

 side to the bough of a tree, and he describes the eggs as white, 

 with black spots. The only other species of Oriole of this section 

 in Bonaparte's Conspectus, Is 0. auratus, of Africa ; but otliers are 

 recorded elsewhere. 



