OEIOLID^. — LAXIID^E. 4 i 



ou the Continent." It appears regularly each year in the Land's-End 

 district of Cornwall about April 20th, where as many as forty have been 

 seen in a flock. 



Mr. J. E,. Griffiths (late of Pilton Abbey, near Barnstaple), who was 

 well acquainted with this bird, having often seen it on the Continent, 

 informed us that a pair of Orioles frequented his grounds and nested in 

 the shrubbery (More, in ' Ibis,' I860, p. 20 ; G. F. M., ' Naturalist,' 1866, 

 p. 358). 



The singular nest of the Golden Oriole, which is suspended between 

 two forking boughs, to which it is woven, would seem to show a connection 

 between the Orioles and the Weaver-Birds. 



Specimens were obtained at Okehampton Park by Mr. Newton, also by Mr. E. Julian 

 at Estover, near Plymouth, and at Mount Kdgcumbe (E. M., Eowe's Peramb. Dart- 

 moor, p. 233 ; Mag. Nat. Hist. n. s. i. p. 17 ; Trans. Plym. Inst. 1830, p. 302). A 

 female was shot in the neighbourhood of Mount Edgcumbe April 29th, 1853 (J. G., 

 ' Naturalist,' 1853, p. 228). One was seen at Leigham in 1856 or '57, and a female was 

 obtained at Millbrooke (J. B. E., Trans. Plym. Inst. 1862-3, p. 65). Mr. Jolley saw 

 a male in fine plumage in April 1866, near King's Tamerton, and a male occurred at 

 Saltram in that year (J. Gr. and J. B. E., MS. Notes). Mr. Henry Nicholls saw a 

 male in the marsh near the salmon-weir on the Avon, near Kingsbridge. One was 

 seen in July 1887 in an orchard at Stokenham (Pidsley, B. of Devon, p. 33). 



In the Museum of the College at Westward Ho ! is a young male which was shot at 

 Atherington. The Golden Oriole has been frequently observed near Barnstaple, and 

 it has visited Lundy Island, but the Eev. H. G. Heaven tells us that it has not been 

 seen there of late years. 



This beautiful bird is of almost regular occurrence in Cornwall, and 

 occasionallv visits Dorset and Somerset. 



Family LANIID^. 



THE SHRIKES. 



Of the very large family of the Shrikes we have only one 

 which is at all common in this country, and this is the 

 Ked-backed Shrike, a well-known summer migrant. Two 

 other rare summer visitors, the Woodchat and the Lesser 

 Grey Shrike, have only once or twice occurred in Devon- 

 shire ; while the very conspicuous Great Grey Shrike, not 

 an infrequent visitor in winter to the eastern parts of the 

 kingdom, must be considered as rare in our county, and 

 in the West of England generally. Their habits make 

 the Shrikes easily recognized, as they perch on some 

 exposed twig, dead tree, or telegniph-wire, whence they 



