214 MERULID.E. 



The Golden Oriole is tlie only European species of the 

 genus, and its nest is very different in shape from those of 

 some of its foreign congeners, which are elongated, purse-like, 

 and pendant. The nest of the Golden Oriole is rather flat 

 and saucer-shaped, generally placed in the horizontal fork of a 

 bough of a tree, to both branches of which it is firmly at- 

 tached. The materials used to form the nest are shecp"'s 

 Avool and long slender stems of grass, Avhicli are so curiously 

 interwoven as mutually to confine and sustain each other. 

 The vignette at the end of this article represents a nest of 

 this bird, taken, by permission, from a specimen presented 

 to the Zoological Society by Professor Passerini of Florence. 

 Another nest of this bird, exactly resembling the one just 

 referred to in form, materials, and structure, is represented 

 by Mr. Meyer in his " Illustrations of British Birds," from 

 a nest taken in Suffolk ; and I have been told that Mr. 

 Scales of Beecham Well had eggs of the Golden Oriole in 

 his collection which had been taken in Norfolk. The eggs 

 are usually four or five in number, one inch two lines long 

 and ten lines in breadth, of a white colour slightly tinged 

 with purple, and with a few distinct spots of ash-grey and 

 claret colour. The female is said to be so tenacious of her 

 eggs as to suflfer herself to be taken with the nest. A writer 

 in the Naturalist mentions having seen a pair of young 

 birds in nearly full plumage exhibited for sale in the public 

 market at Cologne, for which he was asked the moderate sum 

 of three shillings. Bechstein says that the parent birds rear 

 but one brood in a season ; which helps to account for the 

 scarcity of this very handsome bird. The food of this species 

 is various, consisting of insects and their larvae, with figs, 

 cherries, grapes, and other fruits in their season. 



The voice of the Oriole is said to be loud : Bechstein con- 

 siders it to be full and flute-like ; its call-note, he says, is well 

 expressed by the term puJilo. The Spaniards call this bird 



