THE GOLDEN ORIOLE 147 



THE GOLDEN ORIOLE 

 [F. C. E. JOURDAIN] 



Few ornithologists have had the opportunity of making any 

 extended study of the habits of this shy and brilliantly plumaged 

 bird within the limits of our own country. Yet it is true that 

 every year a good many individuals appear in spring along our 

 southern coasts and work their way inland, judging from the records 

 of slaughter which appear annually. It is indeed tolerably clear 

 that nothing but the senseless butchery of breeding pairs on their 

 first arrival prevents the species from breeding regularly with us, 

 in one or two favoured districts at all events. As a rule it appears 

 in pairs, or the more conspicuous male is alone noted, but sometimes 

 it arrives in considerable numbers at a time. As already stated, 

 about forty were seen near Penzance in 1870 and Borrer (Birds of 

 Sussex, p. 43) mentions having seen fourteen sunning themselves on 

 an old thorn bush on Henfield Common. But as a rule the articles 

 on this species in our county Faunas are not exhilarating reading, 

 and consist for the most part of mere catalogues of birds shot or 

 seen and unsuccessfully pursued, and it is with relief that we turn 

 to the other side of the Channel to learn something of its life-history 

 and habits. 



The golden oriole is a regular migrant, only visiting Europe 

 during the summer months and wintering in Africa. 1 There is 

 work for many generations of naturalists in tracing out the move- 

 ments of our summer migrants in this vast and little-known con- 

 tinent. Few birds are, however, more easily recognised when 

 seen than the adult male, even by those who are not ornitho- 

 logists, and under certain conditions he is a conspicuous, though 

 always a shy and wary bird, so that we know that his winter 



1 A few appear to migrate in a south-easterly direction, and apparently winter in Sind. 

 See Hume, Stray Feathers, i. pp. 91, 182. 



