HISTOEY OF BRITISH BIEDS. 



GOLDEN ORIOLE. 



Oriolus galbula, PENNANT. MONTAGU. BEWICK. 



Oriolus ? Galbulah. diminutive of Galbus Yellow. 



THIS splendid bird is a native of the continent of Europe, 

 and of portions of those of Africa and Asia. In the first 

 named it is plentiful in Spain, Italy, and France, and is also 

 found in Germany, Bavaria, Holland, and Malta, in the latter 

 on its passage at the seasons of migration. It occurs in 

 Persia, and Asia Minor, and in Egypt, and other parts of 

 the northern shores of Africa. 



The Golden Oriole, though not one of our very rarest 

 visitors, is yet sufficiently unfrequent to justify an enumeration 

 of the different specimens recorded as having occurred. In 

 Yorkshire one, a fine female, was killed in the spring of 1834, 

 near the Lighthouse at the Spurn Point, at the mouth of 

 the Humber. In April, 1824, one was shot at Aldershot, in 

 Hampshire. Two are related by Dr. Moore to have been 

 met with in Devonshire. In Cornwall several have been 

 obtained; one near the Land's End in 1833. In Lancashire 

 one, near Manchester, in July, 1811, and one at Quernmore 

 Park, near Lancaster. In Surrey one was seen by Mr. Meyer, 

 on Burwood Common, near Walton-on-Thames, and one was 

 shot near Godalming, in 1833. One seen near Cheshunt. In 

 Suffolk two were taken near Saxmundham, and the nest is 

 said to have been found in that county. In Norfolk a pair 

 were shot at Diss, one at Hethersett, near Norwich, in April, 

 1824, and one, a male, at Heigham, in the environs of Norwich, 

 on the 8th. of May, 1847; the female, it is believed, was seen 

 at the same time: a pair also built in the garden of the 

 Rev. Mr. Lucas, of Ormsby. In the county of Durham one 



VOL. iv. B 



