354 OBIOLID^E. 



that the nest, although apparently finished, was empty. The nest 

 was built entirely of grass, somewhat coarse on the exterior, finer 

 on the inside ; it was a shallow saucer-shaped structure, and was 

 placed in a hollow at the top of the stump." 



Family ORIOLID^l. 



518. Oriolus kundoo, Sykes. The Indian Oriole. 



Oriolus kundoo, Sykes, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 107 ; Hume, Rough Draft 

 N. $ E. no. 470. 



The Indian Oriole breeds from May to August (the great 

 majority, however, laying in June and July) almost throughout 

 the plains country of India and in the lower ranges of the Hima- 

 layas to an elevation of 4000 feet. In Southern and Eastern 

 Bengal it only, so far as I know, occurs as a straggler during the 

 cold season, and I have no information of its breeding there. It 

 does not apparently ascend the Mlghiris, and throughout the 

 southern portion of the peninsula it breeds very sparingly, if at 

 all ; indeed, it is just at the commencement of the breeding-season, 

 when the mangoes are ripening, that Upper India is suddenly 

 visited by vast numbers of this species migrating from the south. 



The nest is placed on some large tree, I do not think the bird 

 has any special preference, and is a moderately deep purse or 

 pocket, suspended between some slender fork towards the ex- 

 tremity of one of the higher boughs. From below it looks like a 

 round ball of grass wedged into the fork, and the sitting bird is com- 

 pletely hidden within it ; but when in the hand it proves to be a 

 most beautifully woven purse, shallower or deeper as the case may 

 be, hung from the fork of two twigs, made of fine grass and slender 

 strips of some tenacious bark and bound round and round the 

 twigs, and secured to them much as a prawn-net is to its wooden 

 framework. Some nests contain no extraneous matters, but 

 others have all kinds of odds and ends scraps of newspaper or 

 cloth, shavings, rags, snake skins, thread, &c. interwoven in the 

 exterior. The interior is always neatly lined with fine grass- 

 stems. 



Yery commonly the bird so selects the site for its nest that 

 the leaves of the twigs it uses as a framework form more or less 

 of a shady canopy overhead ; in fact, as a rule, it is from very few 

 points of view that even a passing bird of prey can catch sight of 

 the female on her eggs. Possibly the brilliant plumage of the 

 bird (which has endowed it amongst the natives with the name of 

 Peelulc, or " The Yellow One ") may have had something to do 

 with the concealment it so generally affects. 



The nests vary a good deal in size. I have seen one with an 



