BRITISH BIRDS, 



WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



ORDER PASSE RES 



(CONTINUED.) 



FAMILY ORIOLID^E. 



THIS family consists of a tropical group of brightly coloured birds in which 

 yellow and black, or scarlet and black, are the prevailing hues. Although 

 in the general form of their heads they somewhat remind one of Starlings, they 

 must not be confounded with the so-called "Orioles" of the New World, which 

 belong to the family leterida or Hang-nests and Troupials, a group of birds linking 

 the Finches and the Starlings, and feeding very largely upon seeds. 



The late Henry Seebohm was of opinion that the Orioles were nearly related 

 to the Crows ; he therefore placed the genus Oriolus in his Subfamily Corvimc, from 

 which he said that they chiefly differed in their exposed nostrils, although he 

 admitted that the tarsus might perhaps be slightly shorter, and the prevailing 

 colours different ; whilst the sexes also were dissimilar.* 



* The fact that they hop when on the ground, would hardly serve to distinguish the Orioles from the 

 Crows ; for anyone who has watched a Raven, must have been vastly amused 1>y its ungainly hopping in all 

 directions. 



VOL. n. B 



