THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 227 



Waxwings. From fifteen to twenty examples were again seen in 

 January 1850, from the 8th to the 12th of the month. Since then, 

 however, scarcely more than one or two cases of the occurrence of this 

 species have been recorded for ten years at a time. The last solitary 

 specimen was seen in my garden on the 23rd of November 1876. 



The nesting places of this bird extend from Upper Lapland 

 eastward through the whole of Asia, and thence stretch farther east 

 from Alaska to about the middle of Arctic North America. 



Oriole Oriolus. According to Dresser this genus is represented 

 by only two species, 0. galbula,which inhabits Europe and a great part 

 of Asia, and 0. Jcundoo, which is a native of India and eastern Asia. 

 In both these the smaller feathers of the males are of a beautiful 

 pure yellow colour, and the greater or less extent to which the 

 black markings are developed seems to be the only mark of 

 distinction between the two species, of which only one, the first- 

 named, has hitherto visited Heligoland. 



60. Golden Oriole [PIROL]. 



Heligolandish : Billow = Pirol. 



Oriolus galbula. Naumann, ii. 171. 



Golden Oriole. Dresser, iii. 365. 



Loriot vulgaire. Temminck, Manuel, i. 129, iii. 73. 



' Schulz von Billow,' as I used to call it in my own home, the 

 Mark of Brandenburg, when I was a boy is a very rare visitor 

 here ; one or two younger birds or females may perhaps be seen 

 during the latter half of May, but even these cannot be reckoned 

 on with certainty. In the course of fifty years I have observed and 

 obtained only one example, an old male in adult plumage. Its 

 far-sounding cry, ' tuiit-o-luoh,' a presage of green woods illumined 

 by sunshine, I have never yet had the good fortune to hear on 

 this island. What scenes of the far-off days of happy boyhood 

 would this sound have re-awakened ! How well I remember 

 those Whitsuntide holidays, when we employed all our arts of 

 strategy and cunning to get at a Golden Oriole's nest, hanging in 

 the branches of some lofty birch at the edge of the wood ; or, again, 

 the beech-grove, shaped like a light-green dome, the open forest 

 with its ancient oaks dating back their birth to a thousand years, 

 and having now but scanty space for their wide-spreading roots and 

 branches, and the dark pine-woods filled with resinous odours ! 



Those were happy days indeed, when we used to climb up the 

 mighty giants of the forest and settle matters with any Buzzard, 



