BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 27 



must be much more rare than that of the Hoopoe, 

 for a bird of such plumage as the Oriole would be 

 more likely to attract even more attention than the 

 comparatively sober-coloured Hoopoe, and if half 

 so common as the latter would be sure to fall before 

 the gun of the fowler. There was a specimen of 

 the female bird in the Museum of the Mechanics' 

 Institution, but I am not sure about its history, 

 and I have some reason to suppose it was shot in 

 Jersey. Our venerable ' national poet, Mr. George 

 Metivier, has many allusions to the Oriole in his 

 early effusions, whether written in English, French, 

 or our vernacular dialect. It seems to have been 

 an occasional visitor at St. George's ; but in Mr. 

 Metivier's early days the island was far more 

 wooded than it is at present, and it is possible that 

 the wholesale destruction of hedgerow elms and the 

 grubbing-up of so many orchards in order to employ 

 the ground more profitably in the culture of early 

 potatoes and brocoli, by which the island has lost 

 much of its picturesque beauty, may have had the 

 effect of deterring some of the occasional visitors 

 from alighting here in their periodical migrations." 

 Signed " Tereus." 



A short time after the appearance of this letter 

 in the < Star ' on the 16th of May, 1878, Mr. 

 MacCulloch himself wrote to me on the subject and 

 said : " I had yesterday a very satisfactory inter- 

 view with Mr. George Metivier. He is now in his 



