OBIOLUS 51 



Iris red ; bill red ; feet blackish-brown. 



Length 8'00; wing 5*40 ; tail 3'00; tarsus O80; culrnen 1-10. 



Adult female. Eesembles the male, but is duller in colour. 



Distribution. On the East Coast, from Delagoa Bay to Mombasa, 

 extending through the Northern Transvaal and Mashonaland, where 

 it is "not uncommon," according to Ayres, to East Bamangwato 

 (Holub), the Okavango Eiver, Ovampo Land, and Damara Land, 

 from all of which localities it has been recorded by Andersson. 

 Anchieta found this species at Humbe, to the north of the Cunene 

 Eiver, and at other localities in Benguela. 



Habits. Andersson remarks in the "Birds of Damara Land" 

 (page 125) : " I have only obtained the adult of this splendid Oriole 

 in Damara Land on a few occasions, and that always during the 

 rainy season ; the young, however, are frequently met with ; and at 

 the Okavango Eiver the species is more common than in Damara 

 Land proper. The young birds are easily obtained ; but the old 

 ones are excessively shy and difficult to procure, as they always 

 perch on the most elevated and conspicuous trees, and retire into the 

 densest parts of tangled brakes and thickets on the least approach 

 of danger." 



" The food of this Oriole consists of seeds, berries, and insects. 

 The irides are brown in the young birds and bright red in the adults ; 

 the bill is reddish-brown ; the legs are lead-coloured." 



22. Oriolus larvatus, Black-headed Oriole. 



A, 



Le Coudougnan, Levaill. Ois. d'Afr. vi, p. 52, pi. 261 (1808). 



Oriolus larvatus, Licht. Verz. Doubl. p 20 (1823) ; Holub and Von Pelz. 



Beitr. Om. Siidafr. p. 93 (1882) ; Sharpe, ed. Layards B. S. Afr. 



pp. 413, 845 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. iii, p. 217 (1877) ; Shelley, B. 



Afr. i, p. 41 (1896). 

 Oriolus capensis, Swains. Class. B. ii, p. 237 (1837) ; Layard, B. S. 



Afr. p. 134 (1867). 

 Oriolus arundinarius, Burcli. Trav. in S. Afr. i, 464 (1824). 



" Uhlaza " of the Zulus. 



Description. Adult male. Entire head, face, and throat, ex- 

 tending down the centre of the chest, black ; rest of the body, above 

 and below, golden yellow, tinged with olive on the back ; wing- 

 coverts black, broadly edged with yellow, the outermost with grey ; 

 primary coverts black tipped with white ; quills black, the primaries 



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