BRITISH BIRDS, 
WITH THEIR NESTS AND Kaas. 
ORDER PASSERES 
(CONTINUED ) 
FAMILY ORIOLID#. 
HIS family consists of a tropical group of brightly coloured birds in which 
yellow and black, or scarlet and black, are the prevailing hues. Although 
in the general form of their heads they somewhat remind one of Starlings, they 
must not be confounded with the so-called ‘“‘Orioles” of the New World, which 
belong to the family /cferide or Hang-nests and Troupials, a group of birds linking 
the Finches and the Starlings, and feeding very largely upon seeds. 
The late Henry Seebohm was of opinion that the Orioles were nearly related 
to the Crows; he therefore placed the genus Oviolus in his Subfamily Corvine, from 
which he said that they chiefly differed in their exposed nostrils, although he 
admitted that the tarsus might perhaps be slightly shorter, and the prevailing 
colours different; whilst the sexes also were dissimilar.* 
* The fact that they hop when on the ground, would hardly serve to distinguish the Orioles from the 
Crows; for anyone who has watched a Raven, must have been vastly amused by its ungainly hopping in all 
directions. 
Vou. 1. B 
