54 2 PASSERIFORMES : ORIOLIDAE CHAP. 



down, is built in aquatic herbage, or rarely in moderately high 

 plants, to contain the round creamy eggs with sparing brownish- 

 black lines and scrawls. These number from four to eight, or even 

 ten, should two hens lay together. The alarm-note is plaintive. 

 Towards autumn the adults and young form large flocks. 



Fam. XXI. Oriolidae. The Old World Orioles, not to be con- 

 founded with the so-called " American Orioles " (Icteridae), inhabit 

 the Palaearctic, Indian, and Australian Eegions, reaching eastward 

 to Turkestan, China, and Papuasia. The bill is strong, rather long, 



FIG. 123. Golden Oriole. Oriolus galbula 



straight, and notched, or, in Sphecotheres, curved ; the metatarsus 

 is short, the toes are small, the wings are long, the tail is moderate 

 and slightly rounded. Sphecotheres has naked lores and orbits. 

 The Golden Oriole (0. galbula) which breeds exceptionally in Eng- 

 land, is orange-yellow, with black lores and mainly black wings 

 and tail ; the similar Indian Mango-bird (0. kundoo), has a black 

 post-ocular streak ; other species shew black napes or heads. 0. 

 viridis and its allies are olive-yellow or brownish, often with dusky 

 streaks, 0. steerii being white beneath with broad black stripes ; 

 0. cruentus is blue-black, with crimson wing-bar and mid-breast ; 

 0. ardens chiefly crimson, with black head and fore-neck ; 0. trailli 

 maroon, with black head, throat, and wings ; 0. hosii black, with 



