GOLDEN ORIOLE. 237 



says (Zool. p. 2496) that at the end of May, 1849, a nest was, 

 with the owners, obtained near Elmstone. It was suspended 

 from the extremity of the top branch of an oak, was com- 

 posed entirely of wool, bound together with dried grass, and 

 contained three eggs. Mr. Hulke, in 1851, also recorded 

 (Zool. p. 3034) a third, of which he was told that it was 

 found about ten years previously in Word Wood near 

 Sandwich by a countryman who took the young and gave 

 them to his ferrets ; and Mr. More, on the authority of Mr. 

 Charles Gordon, mentions one at Elmstead, adding that the 

 bird appeared again in the same locality in 1861. Mr. 

 Howard Saunders and Lord Lilford have informed the 

 Editor that, in the past summer of 1871, they each observed, 

 in Surrey and Northamptonshire respectively, a bird of this 

 species which probably had a nest. Messrs. Sheppard and 

 Whitear speak of a nest said to have been found in a 

 garden near Ormsby in Norfolk ; but the eggs formerly in 

 Mr. Scales' s collection, which it has been thought were 

 taken in that county, were really brought from Holland, and 

 the Editor is not aware of any collector who can boast the 

 possession of eggs of this species laid in Britain. 



In Ireland, according to Thompson this species has been 

 obtained or observed in the counties of Kerry, Cork, Water- 

 ford, Wexford, Wicklow and Down, all it may be remarked 

 in the south or east of the island, while April 1870, as 

 recorded by Mr. W. A. Hackett (Zool. s.s. p. 2222), was 

 particularly distinguished by the visit of several of these 

 birds to the county Cork. Mr. Eobert Gray mentions one 

 killed in June 1868 in the Isle of Man, and that as regards 

 Scotland, it has occurred in the Isle of Arran, on the west, 

 and on the east in Berwickshire, near Edinburgh, and in the 

 counties of Fife and Ross. 



In Germany, Holland and France, and generally over the 

 continent of Europe, this bird is not uncommon. The most 

 northern limit which seems to have been recorded for its 

 occurrence is the north coast of Iceland, where according to 

 information supplied to Dr. Kjaerbolling one was found dead 

 in December, 1843 the season of the year intimating 



