Golden Orioles and Spring Foliage 159 
in the dense lentiscus or wild olive trees scattered through the 
cork forests. Curiously enough they seem never to lay more 
than three eggs in place of the four or five usually found in nests 
in England. I mention this because I have never seen or heard 
of a nest with more than three eggs. 
Among the upper branches of the cork-oak trees, the Serin 
Finch (/ringilla serinus) nests, a sort of diminutive wild Canary, 
its weak sibilant song being heard on all sides. 
One of the commonest of the woodland birds is the Woodchat 
Shrike (Lanzus rufus), which nests in great numbers in the olive 
and smaller cork-oak trees. They are handsome birds, particularly 
the males, and on their first arrival are very noticeable as they 
sit bolt upright with their white breasts showing conspicuously. 
Like other Shrikes they lay two distinctly differently coloured sets 
of eggs, one being of warm stone-coloured ground and the other 
pale green, both alike being much spotted at the larger end. 
Among the spring arrivals, the Golden Oriole (Orzolus galbula) 
is conspicuous by reason both of the splendid plumage of the male 
and his melodious whistling call which once heard can never be 
forgotten. Amid the cork forests where these birds, in common 
with other migrants, find a temporary resting-place on their first 
arrival from southern latitudes, there are numerous grass-grown 
glades adjoining the so¢fos or swampy portions. Along such 
places both ash and Spanish oak are commonly to be met with, 
which at the time of the arrival of the Orioles in the month of 
April are clad in the brilliant green foliage of early spring. These 
trees seem to offer peculiar attraction to Orioles and often have 
I endeavoured to detect these birds as they sat embowered among 
the green leaves, uttering their tuneful calls. In the brilliant 
sunshine the high lights and dark shadows cast on the leaves so 
exactly tone both with the yellow and black of the males and the 
green and dark brown of the females as to make it a hard task 
