ORIOLUS GALBULA 3 



Oriolus galbula. 



Oiiolus galbula, Linn. S. N. i. p. 160 (1766) Europe; Dresser, B. Eur. 



iii. p. 365, pi. 144 (1875) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii. p. 191 (1877) ; 



Shelley, B. Afr. I. No. 568 (1896) ; A. L. Butler, Ibis, 1905, p. 323 



Khartoum. 

 Coracias oriolus, Linn, (x.) p. 107 (1758) Europe. 

 Oriolus oriolus, Eeichen. Vog. Afr. ii. p. 654 (1903). 



Adult male. General plumage bright golden yellow, with the wings and 

 tail mostly black ; in front of eye a broad black band ; wing black above, 

 with broad pale yellow ends to the primary coverts ; quills with whitish 

 terminal margins, broadest on the outer webs of some of the secondaries 

 and a few of the larger quills have very imperfect white outer edges; under 

 wing-coverts yellow ; under surface of quills dusky ash, fading almost into 

 white on their inner edges ; tail, with the base and centre black, the yellow 

 ends to the feathers rapidly increasing in extent towards the outer ones. 

 Iris crimson ; bill pale brownish red ; feet grey. Total length 9-4 inches, 

 culmen l-Q, wing 61, tail 3'6, tarsus 0-85. Bogos (Esler). 



Adult female. Differs in having the wings and tail paler ; upper parts 

 shaded with olive; throat and breast white, shading into olive yellow on 

 the sides and under tail-coverts, and with some blackish shaft-stripes ; 

 wings dusky brown, with a wash of olive yellow on the inner secondaries, 

 greater-coverts and edges of the lesser-coverts ; tail with the centre feathers 

 olive and the dark portion of the others dusky olive extending nearly to 

 the ends of the feathers. 



Immature. Similar in plumage to the adult females, or, in the younger 

 specimens, the wing-coverts have whitish terminal margins, the under parts 

 more strongly striped and the tail more olive. 



The European Grolden Oriole breeds during its migration 

 in Europe and Western Asia, and has been met with as far 

 north as 60° N. lat. It ranges over the whole of Eastern and 

 Southern Africa, and North-western Africa to as far south 

 as Senegambia. 



The greater portion of the specimens migrate from Africa 

 in April, and return to that continent again in September, 

 but some apparently remain in Tropical Africa throughout 

 the year, for Dr. Hinde procured an example at Nairobi, on 

 June 1, 1899. It has not been recorded from Western Africa, 



