542 PASSERIFORMES : ORIOLIDAE CHAP. 
down, is built in aquatic herbage, or rarely in moderately high 
plants, to contain the round creamy eggs with sparing brownish- 
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. X XI. Oriolidae.—The Old World Orioles, not to be con- 
founded with the so-called “ American Orioles ” ([cteridae), inhabit 
the Palaearctic, Indian, and Australian Regions, reaching eastward 
to Turkestan, China,and Papuasia. The bill is strong, rather long, 
Fic. 123.—Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula. x #. 
straight, and notched, or, in Sphecotheres, curved; the metatarsus 
is short, the toes are small, the wings are long, the tail is moderate 
and shghtly rounded. Sphecotheres 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. kundoo), has a black 
post-ocular streak; other species shew black napes or heads. 0. 
viridis and its allies are olive-yellow or brownish, often with dusky 
streaks, O. steerit being white beneath with broad black stripes ; 
0. cruentus is blue-black, with crimson wing-bar and mid-breast ; 
O. ardens chiefly crimson, with black head and fore-neck ; 0. trail 
maroon, with black head, throat, and wings; 0. hosiz black, with 
