Letters, Announcements, S:^c. 207 



Sirs, — In ' The Ibis * for January last, p. 89, you express 

 your regret that the " grave error " of charging the Golden 

 Oriole with eating fruits, especially cherries, should have 

 been sanctioned and propagated by one of the new groups of 

 Birds in the British Museum. I should be the veiy last to 

 cast any aspersion on the character of this old favourite of 

 mine; but I must express it, not as my opinion, but as the 

 result of direct observation, that, in South Germany, Orioles 

 feed freely on ripe sweet cherries. So far as I know, the 

 only way of catching them is by snares baited with cherries, 

 and those which I had alive were so caught. The group 

 to which you take objection was made up from my distinct 

 recollection of the home of a pair of cheny-eating Orioles. 



Nevertheless, I should have considered it a grave error to 

 doubt the correctness of observations made in other parts of 

 the country, and was quite prepared to be taught that the 

 Golden Oriole is only locally a cherry-eater. However, on 

 referring to the original statement by your authority, M. 

 Crette de Palluel, I find that he certainly does not contradict 

 the fact which I intended to represent in that group, but 

 rather that he attempts to prove too much. After having 

 stated that he had captured a great number of Orioles to 

 examine the contents of their stomachs (the greater the pity!), 

 and that he had found them gorged with noxious insects, 

 with only a small quantity of fruit in some, he winds up with 

 the following words, which were omitted by you : — " The 

 Oriole does not digest the seeds of the fruits which it eats ; 

 it is therefore the natural propagator of fruit-trees, and not 

 their enemy. ^'' As a matter of fact, it is just as well to state 

 that the Golden Oriole does not swallow the stones of the 

 cherries which it eats. 



Having before me M. Oustalet^'s Report, I was also 

 tempted by your notice of it to read his account of using 

 electricity in the capture of birds, as it seemed to me an 

 extraordinary statement in a report addressed to a Minister 

 of Public Instruction and Fine Arts, who might be supposed 

 to be acquainted with the elements of physical science. I 

 do not think that the procedure, as described bij M. Oustalet, 



