204 OMNIVOILE. 



THE GOLDEN ORIOLE (OrioluS galbulo). 



Rather larger than the wax-wing, and less elegant in form, 

 but a beautiful bird. Male golden yellow, with the wings and 

 tail black ; the margins white in the wings, and the tips, 

 with the exception of the middle feathers, yellow in the tail. 

 Female olive green above, grey below, with traces of yellow 

 in both. A summer migrant on the continent, but merely a 

 rare straggler in Britain. The Orioles, with the analogous 

 genus of American bird, Icterus (of which the colour also is 

 yellow in the males, and greenish yellow in the females and 

 young birds), exert more labour and show more neatness in 

 the structure of their nests, than perhaps any other of the 

 feathered tribes. * 



ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR, OR ROSE OUZEL (Pastor TOSeus). 



This is another very rare straggler, about the size of the 

 starling, but more compact. The head (which has a large 

 crest), neck, wings, and tail of the male are black, and the 

 rest of a pale rose colour, inclining to salmon colour, or nearly 

 peach-blossom, with the least possible " feeling" of orange in 

 it. The black of the head, crest, and neck is intense and 



to be within the arctic circle, but Bonaparte suggests that the extensive 

 and elevated table land of central Asia is its principal rendezvous. In 

 America it frequents the high northern regions, and is common on the 

 Athabasca River, near the Rocky Mountains. Dr. Richardson observed 

 it at Great Bear Lake, in lat. 65. 



Two other species are known, viz., the cedar bird (Bombicilla Caro- 

 linensis) of North America, well described by Wilson and Audubon, and 

 the Japanese wax-wing (J?. PhcBnicoptera) from the Japanese islands. 

 In this species the wax-like appendages to the secondary quill feathers 

 are wanting. M. 



* Selby places the genus Oriolus within the family of thrushes, 

 Merulidce, as does Bonaparte in his " Birds of Europe and North America," 

 making it the type of a sub-family. But in his " Conspectus," the lattrr 

 zoologist places the orioles as a sub-family, in his family Paradiseidce, just 

 before the Sturnida. M. 



