542 



PASSERIFORMES : ORIOLIDAE 



down, is built in aquatic herbage, or rarely in moderately high 

 plants, to contain the round creamy eggs with sparing Ijrownish- 

 black lines and scrawls. These number from four to eight, or even 

 ten, should two hens lay together. The alarm-note is plaintive. 

 Towards autumn the adults and young form large flocks. 



Fam. XXI. Oriolidae.^ — The Old World Orioles, not to be con- 

 founded with the so-called " American Orioles " {Icter'ulae), inhabit 

 the Palaearctic, Indian, and Australian Eegions, reaching eastward 

 to Turkestan, China, and Papuasia. The bill is strong, rather long, 



Fig. 123.— Golden Oriole. OrioJns rjaJbula. x i. 



straiglit, and notched, or, in Sjjhecotheres, curved ; the metatarsus 

 is short, the toes are small, the wings are long, the tail is moderate 

 and slightly rounded. Sphecotlieres has naked lores and orbits. 

 The Golden Oriole {0. galbula) which breeds exceptionally in Eng- 

 land, is orange-yellow, with black lores and mainly black wings 

 and tail ; the similar Indian Mango-bird (0. hundoo), has a black 

 post-ocular streak ; other species shew black napes or lieads. 0. 

 viridis and its allies are olive-yellow or brownish, often with dusky 

 streaks, 0. steerii being white beneath with l)road black stripes ; 

 0. cruentus is blue-black, with crimson wing-bar and mid-breast ; 

 0. ardens chiefly crimson, with black head and fore-neck ; 0. trailli 

 maroon, with black head, throat, and wings ; 0. hosii black, with 



