'318 CLASS AVKS. 



and ten in width at its lower part, which is hemispherical. 

 The entrance is towards the top, and the bottom is furnished 

 with a thick bed of dry leaves. In this species some indivi- 

 duals are larger than others, which has given rise to an 

 opinion, that there are two races diflPering in size. 



Of the Black and Yelloiv Oriole^ called Yapou in Brazil, 

 Sonnini gives the following details : — 



" It is a bird that can be educated with equal ease and 

 pleasure. Its natural disposition, which leads it to seek the 

 society of its consimilars, gives it an equal inclination to that 

 of man. Its voice is strong, clear, and sonorous ; and its apti- 

 tude to imitate the song of other birds, and even the cries of 

 different animals, renders it susceptible of being taught to 

 repeat airs and a variety of sounds. It can counterfeit the 

 laugh of a man, the barking of a dog, &c. It is not difficult in 

 the choice of its food, and will eat almost every thing that 

 is presented to it. This bird exhales a kind of odour, which 

 renders its flesh uneatable. This odour the people of Cayenne 

 resemble to musk ; but it is more like that of casto- 

 reum. 



" In the wild state, the yapous remain in flocks, and when 

 perched on trees, they appear, from the variety of their native 

 and imitative sounds, to be mocking the passers-by. The 

 Brazilian name is expressive of their natural cry. They 

 have several other names, in those countries, formed by an 

 onomatopceia of the same description. 



" They live on insects and various kinds of grain. They 

 suspend their nests to the extremities of the branches of the 

 most lofty trees, almost always in open places, and near the 

 water-side. The form of these nests is that of a narrow 

 cucurbite, surmounted by its alembic. They are simply 

 composed of dried plants, without horsehair or any similar 

 substance, which some describers have taken for the small, dry 

 filaments used by these birds. Many hundreds of these same 



