OKIOLID/E. 



137 





THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



Oriolus c;albula, Linnasus. 



This bright-plumaged bird is an annual spring-migrant to Corn- 

 wall and the Scilly Islands, where as many as forty have been seen 

 in a single April, and it is an irregular but not unfrequent visitor to 

 the southern and eastern counties of England ; while nests have 

 been found — or the birds seen under circumstances which left little 

 doubt that they were breeding — in Norfolk, Essex, Northampton- 

 shire, Surrey, and especially in Kent. The most recent instances 

 have been at Dumpton Park, Isle of Thanet, where a pair of birds, 

 protected by the proprietor, Mr. Bankes Tomlin, reared a brood 

 (Ilarting, 'Our Summer Migrants,' p. 268) in 1874, and again in 

 1875. As a rule, however, the bright plumage of this bird attracts 

 the attention of the destroying collector, and the species is thus 

 prevented from nesting with us annually, as it would otherwise do; 

 for migrants generally return to the localities in which they were 



