GOLDEN ORIOLE. 589 



ORIOLUS GALBULA. 

 GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



(PLATE 11.) 



Turdus oriolus, Briss. Orn. ii. p. 320 (1760). 



Oriolus galbula. Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 160 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Nauman/t, Gray, Bonaparte, Schlegel, Gould, Salvadori, Sharpe, Dresser, Newton, 



&c. 



Coracias oriolus (Briss.), Scop. Aim. I. Hist. Nat. p. 41 (1769). 

 Coracias galbula (Linn.), Bechst. Naturg. DeutscM. i. p. 1292 (1805). 

 Oriolus galbula (Linn.), var. virescens, Hempr. Sf^Ehr. Symb. Phys. Aves, fol. z (1829). 

 Oriolus aureus. Brehm, Vog. DeutschJ. p. 158 (1831). 



The Golden Oriole breeds throughout most parts of the continent of 

 Europe south of the Baltic, though comparatively few remain to spend the 

 summer iu the extreme south. In South Finland it breeds as far north as 

 lat. 63 ; but in Russia it has not been found north of lat. 60. It is only 

 known as a very rare straggler to Sweden, and appears never to have 

 occurred in Norway, although it is said once to have been obtained in 

 Iceland. It breeds in suitable localities in Holland, France, Germany, 

 Spain, Portugal, Italy, Austria, South Russia, the Caucasus, and, south of 

 the Mediterranean, in Algeria. It appears sometimes to wander to the 

 Azores. Eastwards its breeding-range extends through Persia, Turkestan, 

 and Southern Siberia as far east as the Tian-Shan Mountains and the 

 Altai. My Siberian collector has obtained a specimen at Krasnoyarsk; 

 Taczanowski says that he has seen an example from Irkutsk ; and Radde 

 states that in the museum of the Siberian section of the Russian Geogra- 

 phical Society there are examples from the same neighbourhood. The 

 Golden Oriole passes many of the islands of the Mediterranean, Greece, 

 Asia Minor, Palestine, Egypt, and Nubia on migration, and winters in 

 Africa as far south as Madagascar, Natal, and Damara Land. 



The Golden Oriole has numerous allies, which may be distinguished by 

 having black on the head and nape. The species most closely allied to it 

 is O. kundoo, which partially replaces it in Turkestan, and ranges east- 

 wards to India. It may be distinguished by having the black of the lores 

 extending round and behind the eye, and by having the black on the out- 

 side tail-feathers nearly or quite obsolete. In Africa, south and east of the 

 Sahara a* far as the equator, it is represented by O. auratus, which is 

 replaced by another closely allied species, O. notatus, throughout the main- 

 land of South Tropical Africa. Both these latter species may be distin- 

 guished by their yellow lesser wing- coverts, which are black in the European 



