in ge Nas! Ma NY 
ORIOLUS LARVATUS. 413 
however, are frequently met with, and at the Okavango River it is 
more common than in Damara Land proper. The young birds are 
easily obtained, but the old are excessively shy and difficult to 
procure, as they always perch on the most elevated and conspicuous 
trees, and retire into the densest parts of tangled brakes and 
thickets on the least approach of danger. The food of this Oriole 
consists of seeds, berries, and insects.” 
Like O. galbula the present species has the head entirely golden 
yellow, but has all the wing-coverts and the secondaries broadly 
margined with golden yellow. It has also the outer tail-feather 
entirely golden yellow without any black at the base at all. Total 
length, 8 inches; culmen, 1:1; wing, 5-4; tail, 3:1; tarsus, 0°8. 
Fig. Sharpe, Ibis. 1870, pl. vu. fig. 2. 
396. OrroLus LArvatus, Licht. South African Black-headed Oriole. 
Oriolus capensis, Layard, B. 8. Afr. p. 134. 
This is the only species of Oriole that builds in South Africa, It 
is not uncommon in the forests of the Knysna, and along the south- 
east coast of the colony in general. Le Vaillant met with it in the 
same locality, and states that its nest is placed in very high trees 
and composed of twigs and fibres, covered with moss, and lined with 
feathers. Eges four, of a dirty white colour, with brown blotches. 
On the left bank of the Keurboom’s River, which falls into 
Plettenberg’s Bay, about half a mile from where the mountains 
narrow down to the river, there is a lovely kloof, which opens to the 
water’s edge, and stretches back inland for about a couple of miles. 
A clear running stream flows through the centre of it, and on each 
side rocky, inaccessible precipices hem in a splendid forest. In this 
lovely spot the silence was only broken by the babbling brook and 
the loud pipe of the Oriole, which frequented the summits of the 
gigantic yellowwood trees, whose mighty heads, hung with dense 
masses of a grey moss, seemed, like vegetable Titans, to watch over 
the solitude around them. Thinking this avery paradise fer birds 
and game we twice visited it ; but, with the exception of the Oriole, 
the little black swallow (P. holomelena), and the Loury (Corythaix 
leucolopha), not a creature was to be seen. 
Mr. Rickard tells us that this species is found both at East London 
and Port Elizabeth; and Mr. T. C. Atmore has forwarded some 
specimens from Eland’s Post. Capt. Trevelyan found it near King- 
