SMALL BILLET* ORIOLE. 



Oriolus brackyrynchus^ SWAINS. 



Above, greenish , beneath, yellow ; head and throat, black ; 

 spurious wings with a white spot ; four middle tail-feathers, 

 green ; bill short, the culmen arched. 



WE have already called the attention of our readers 

 to the singular uniformity of colour which some- 

 times pervades the different species of a natural 

 group of birds, so as to render their determination 

 very difficult. Among the drongo shrikes, the pre- 

 dominant colour is hlack, while in Oriolus^ the 

 genus now under consideration, the plumage of 

 nearly all is hlack and yellow. 



So closely does the species, now to be described 

 for the first time, resemble that figured by Le 

 Vaillant under the name of Le Loriot Coudougnan^ 

 that if we had not possessed this latter also, we 

 should most certainly have considered them the 

 same. Le Yaillant's descriptions are the best of 

 the period in which he wrote, but he seldom gives 

 measurements, and very often overlooks those nice 

 but discriminative characters which are now found 

 to be absolutely essential. The two species, in 

 point of fact, are coloured precisely alike, except in 

 their tail-feathers, while they differ materially in 



