ORIOLUS AURATUS 5 



European birds. Both male and female co-operate in the 

 construction of the nest. One I have before me is built in 

 the fork of a slender oak branch, and is made of strips of 

 pliable bark, straw, dried gxass-bents, &c., closely and firmly 

 constructed, and carefully twisted and woven round the 

 branch. The outside is ornamented with strips of paper-like 

 white birch bark ; and the interior is lined with fine grass- 

 bents. In size it measures 4 inches one way and 5^ the 

 other in outside diameter, the inside cup measuring 3-3 1 

 inches in diameter, and 2^ inches in depth. As the nest is 

 not built until the foliage is fully developed, it is by no means 

 easy to find it." 



The eggs, four or five in number, are laid in the latter 

 part of May or early in June. They are glossy white, spotted 

 with reddish brown, and measure about 1'2 X O'SS. 



Mr. A. L. Butler writes : " Avery considerable immigration 

 of Golden Orioles occurs at Khartoum at the beginning of 

 September, when the lime and fig-trees are full of them, 

 mostly immature birds. After this they pass on, and are 

 comparatively scarce until March again. I have never heard 

 them utter their beautiful flute-like notes in their winter 

 quarters. From Haifa in the north their migration follows 

 the Nile Valley up to Uganda, Gedaref is the most eastern 

 point at which I have observed it." 



Oriolus auratus. 



Oriolus auratus, Vieill. N. D. xviii. p. 194 (1817) Hab ? ; Swains. B. W. 



Afr. ii. p. 33, pi. i. (1837) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii. p. 195 (1877); 



Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 569 (1896) ; Eeiclien. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 655 



(1903) ; Grant, Ibis, 1905, pp. 201, 202 Uganda; Neum. J. f. O. 1905, 



p. 232 N. E. Afr. 

 Oriolus bicolor, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p. 20 (1823) Senegambia. 

 Oriolus chryseus, Heugl. Syst. Uebers. p. 31 (1856) N. E. Afr. 

 " Oriolus icterus, Wiirt." Heugl. J. f. 0. 1867, p. 299 N. E. Afr. 

 Le loriodor, Levaill. Ois. Afr. vi. p. 49, pi. 260 (1808). 



