PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 145 



off successfully. They apparently continued to breed here regularly under protection 

 till 1882, and probably again in 1885 and 1889, but not since. There is also evidence 

 that it has bred once in North Devon, as well as in Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire 

 (where young were reared near Peterborough in 1904), probably in Surrey in 1871 

 and 1890, and Essex, as well as in Suffolk and also in Norfolk in 1852. Except in 

 the extreme north, records are tolerably numerous from most of the English counties, 

 though the oriole is only a rare straggler to Wales ; and individuals have been shot 

 or picked up dead from the Isle of Man to the Orkneys and Shetlands, and occasion- 

 ally on the mainland of Scotland. For the distribution outside the breeding area 

 see pp. 78, 79. [F. c. R. J.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Nesting-place : in Germany by preference in oaks and 

 planes, less often in apple or pear trees of a good size, and rarely in firs. In the south 

 of France the ash appears to be the favoured tree, about 60 per cent, of the nests 

 being found in it, but oaks and beeches are also often used, while in the great Hun- 

 garian plain the acacias by the roadsides provide likely sites, and in Spain most nests 

 are built in Spanish oaks by the river banks. The height from the ground is variable, 

 ranging from about 6 to 60 ft., and the nest is generally built in the fork of a horizontal 

 branch at a considerable distance from the trunk. It is not built on to the fork, but 

 slung from it, close to the angle, and woven to the branch most artistically. Though 

 light and flimsy-looking it is strong, and is constructed of grasses, sedges, roots, 

 strips of bark and wool, lined smoothly with flowering heads of grasses and occasion- 

 ally a feather or two. Few nests are without a bit of paper, while Baldamus relates 

 how a thousand franc note was once found in a nest in France. (PL 60.) Opinions 

 differ as to whether both sexes share in the construction or not. The eggs are 

 usually 4 or 5 in number, sparingly marked with spots of very dark purplish brown, 

 which show a slight penumbra, on a white or creamy ground. (PL D.) Average 

 size of 100 eggs, T21 x -84 in. [30'7 x 21 '3 mm.]. Most eggs are laid early in June, 

 sometimes by the last days of May. Incubation is performed chiefly by the hen, 

 and lasts 14-15 days, and only one brood is reared. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Until mid- June the food of this species consists almost entirely of 

 insects, for the most part those which are found on trees. Many of these are 

 devoured in their larval stage, but remains of the imagines of various species of 

 Coleoptera, especially the cockchafers (Meloloniha), are very frequently found in 

 the stomachs of birds examined. Larvae and pupae of many species of Lepidoptera 

 are also eaten in large numbers, among which at least the species of hawk moth 

 have been recognised (Sphinx convolvuli and Smerinihus populi), and in addition 



VOL. II. T 



