ORIOLE BABBLER. 281 



colours and nest* are those of the Orioles. The 

 minute analysis which is requisite to assign to all 

 these resemblances their due weight, and to explain 

 them, has not yet been entered upon, and we there- 

 fore merely allude to them as explanatory of our 

 reasons for not proposing a sub-generic group which 

 cannot be demonstrated. We may here observe, 

 that we can find no description among the hundreds 

 of birds crowded into the Linnsean genus Turdus, 

 which will enable us to identify either this or the 

 following species as having been previously described. 



The total length of this bird exceeds that of the 

 golden oriole on account of its longer tail, but the 

 body is much smaller and its whole proportions more 

 gracile. The bill is slender, a little curved, and 

 very much resembles that of a Meliphaga ; the 

 nostrils also are somewhat lengthened, although their 

 structure is that of Crateropus; the upper mandible 

 of the bill is entire, the commissure arched, and 

 the margins beyond the base inflected. The wings 

 are very short, and the tail is much graduated. The 

 lateral toes are equal, and the hind one with the 

 claw very large. 



The upper plumage is olive- yellow; which extends 

 aiso to the flanks, sides of the body, vent, and thighs, 

 where it has a more fulvous tinge. The whole of 

 the head and the neck, as far down as the breast, is 

 deep black; all the feathers, except those on the 

 breast, being edged more or less with silvery white, 

 particularly on the ears and upper neck ; and this 

 * See Northern Zoology, ii. 



