OBIOLID.E OKIOLUS 49 



Iris red ; bill dull red ; feet dark brown. 



Length 1OOO ; wing 5-90 ; tail 3-10 ; tarsus 0-80 ; culmen 1-00. 



Adult female. Eesembles the adult male in colour, but is some- 

 what duller. She appears to take considerably longer than the 

 male in assuming her fully adult plumage probably two years or 

 more and, as a result, has been frequently described and figured in 

 a plumage resembling that of the young. 



Young. Above olive-yellow; the wings dusky brown tinged 

 with olive ; tail-feathers olive with black bases and tips ; throat and 

 breast grey streaked with black ; flanks yellow with indistinct 

 streaks ; lores dusky ; bill reddish-brown ; feet black. The change 

 from the streaked immature to the adult plumage is due to a change 

 in the colour of the feathers and not to a moult. 



Nestling. Above, dull yellow-olive, each feather edged with 

 pale yellow; wings slate-grey, the coverts and secondaries tinged 

 with olive and tipped with yellow, the primaries edged and tipped 

 with white ; tail olive, tipped with yellow with increases in amount 

 towards the outer feathers ; under surface of body grey, the breast 

 streaked with brown ; thighs, under tail and wing-coverts yellow ; 

 bill brown. 



Distribution. During the northern summer the greater portion 

 of Europe, ranging into South-western Asia and Persia, a few 

 remaining to breed in Algeria and Tunis ; migrating to Africa in 

 winter, and extending as far south as German East Africa, Natal 

 and Knysna, in Cape Colony, some reaching Damaraland and 

 Madagascar. A considerable number of individuals spend the 

 winter months in North Africa, in Tunis, Algeria, Morocco and the 

 oases of the Sahara, perhaps the same birds that breed there. 



Habits. The Golden Oriole is a common and well known 

 summer migrant in Central and Southern Europe. It reaches 

 Germany from the south about the end of April or beginning of 

 May, rears its young, and leaves again in August. A few enter- 

 prising individuals annually reach England. It is a bird of somewhat 

 shy and secluded habits, fond of hiding its brilliant plumage amidst 

 the foliage of the densest thickets and most thickly foliaged trees ; 

 as a result, it is much oftener heard than seen, its peculiarly clear 

 and flute-like notes being audible at a considerable distance. They 

 have been compared to the words " Who are you " rapidly whistled. 

 During the pairing season the male pours out a short but brilliant 

 song, chiefly in the early morning and towards evening ; this is 

 syllabled by the Dutch as " Kiel-i-vee-vo." The alarm-call Naumann 



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