36 SMALL BILLED ORIOLE. 



size, and in the form of their bills. To place these 

 distinctions in the clearest light, we shall subjoin a 

 short description of Le Vaillant's bird, first describ- 

 ing that which inhabits Sierra Leone, and of which 

 we have examined three specimens. 



Size much smaller than the common European 

 Oriole, the whole bird measuring only eight inches 

 and three-quarters. The upper plumage is yellow- 

 green, except those parts which adjoin the black of 

 the head and throat, where the plumage is of the 

 same yellow as the under parts. A black hood 

 envelopes the head and fore part of the neck, where 

 it is rounded off on the breast. The ground colour 

 of the wings is black, but the lesser covers are green, 

 while the greater and the secondary quills are mar- 

 gined with grey; the grey margins of the greater 

 quills are narrower, and become white towards their 

 tips ; the spurious quills are deep black, broadly 

 tipt with white, so as to form a large conspicuous 

 spot. The tail is much rounded; the four lateral 

 feathers on each side are black at their base and 

 yellow beyond, but the two middle pair of feathers, 

 that is, the four in the centre of the tail, are entirely 

 green, with merely a shade of yellow at the tips of 

 two of them. The bill is red and short ; the culmen 

 gradually curved from the base, more so, indeed, than 

 in any oriole yet discovered ; the weak bristles which 

 surround it are also longer and more numerous. 



Of this species three specimens were sent from 

 Sierra Leone. One appears to be a female, as it 

 wants the yellow on the nape and the upper part of 



