ORIOLINiE. HI 



The young bird has the forehead yellow, the head more or less 

 blackish, the neck white with blackish streaks, the belly yellow 

 with longitudinally dark streaks, and tlie yellow duller in tint. 



This black-headed Oriole is found throughout Bengal and North- 

 ern India generally, extending into Central India, and spreading 

 to all the countries to the eastward, Assam, Bunnah, and the 

 Malay peninsula. In the south of India and Ceylon it is replaced by 

 the next bird. It frequents both forests, and gardens and groves; 

 is a lively and noisy bird, constantly flying from tree to tree, and 

 uttering its loud mellow whistle, which Sundevall has put into 

 musical form. 



It feeiis chiefly on fruit, especially on the figs of the Banian, 

 Peepal, and other Fici, and it is said also to eat blossoms and 

 buds. Buchanan Hamilton states that he found the nest, made of 

 bamboo leaves and the fibres that invest the top of the Cocoanut 

 and other palms, in March, with the young unfledged. 



473. Oriolus ceylonensis, Bonaparte 



O. melanocephalus, Blyth, Cat. 1297 (in part; Jerdon, Cat. 

 98 — Sykes, Cat. 59 — Konda-vanga jxaidu, Tel. 



The Southern Black-headed Oriole. 



Descr. — Head and neck deep black ; rest of the plumage rich 

 yellow ; wings black ; the wing-spot formed by the tips of the 

 primary coverts smaller than in tlie last ; the tertiaries only tipped 

 with yellow ; and the black on the tail of greater extent especially 

 on the central feathers. 



Bill, legs, and irides as in the last. 



This species is found in Southern India and Ceylon, but how 

 far it extends towards Central India, I am not aware. Its 

 note, as might have been expected, is very similar to that of its 

 Northern congener. It is very common in the ]\Ialabar Coast, 

 more so indeed than 0. Kundoo, but is comparatively rare in the 

 Carnatic, and almost unknown in the bare Deccan. 



Other black-headed Orioles from the East are O. xanthonotus, 

 Ilorsfield, from Malacca and Java, the smallest of the "enus, 

 placed as a separate division by Bonaparte, under the sub-generic 



