ORIOLES. 



Sub-Family IV. 

 THE ORIOLES. ORIOLIN.^. 



General Characteristics.— Bill as long as the head, broad at the base, and com- 

 pressed on the sides, with the culmen more or less elevated at the base and curved 

 at the tip, which is emarginated ; the nostrils lateral, basal, exposed, and partly 

 covered by a membrane ; the wings long, with the first three quills equally gradu- 

 ated, and the third or fourth the longest ; the tarsi short and strongly scaled ; the 

 toes moderate, and the lateral toes usually unequal. 



These migratory birds are met with in all parts of the world ; 

 they are usually found solitary or in pairs, but occasionally in 



Fig. 64. — The WEoGE-biLLEO Oriole (priolus acrorhynckus). 



small flocks, frequenting the skirts of forests, gardens, and or- 

 chards, in quest of various kinds of fruit and insects. Their flight 

 is undulating, as they fly from one tree to another, to search the 

 foliage for caterpillars. They emit a loud, mellow, plaintive cry. 

 The nest is sometimes saucer-shaped, and generally placed in a 

 fork of a bough, to both branches of which it is firmly attached ; 

 but in some species is long, purse-shaped, and pendulous, hanging 

 from the high branches of trees : it is constructed of sheep's wool 



