THE GOLDEN ORIOLE. 273 



peculiar noise to which I have referred. Not 

 wishing to keep her too long from her young, 

 we left the spot in about ten minutes, after care- 

 fully inspecting the nest with a binocular. Re- 

 turning again in half-an-hour, and a third time 

 two or three hours later, we saw the hen on 

 each occasion quit the nest and take up her 

 position, as before, at a little distance. Once 

 only did I catch a glimpse of her more brightly- 

 coloured mate as he darted between two trees. 

 He was very shy, and silent too, being seldom 

 heard, except very early in the morning, or at 

 twilight. This, however, is the case with most 

 song-birds after the young are hatched, for they 

 are then so busy providing food for the little 

 mouths that they have scarcely time to sit and 

 sing. Mr. Tomlin, who had other and better 

 opportunities for observing him, gave me to 

 understand that he was not in the fully adult 

 plumage,^ so that it seems the males of this 



' On this point the late Mr. Blyth, writing in the Natural 

 History columns of " The Field," 17th August, 1872, under 

 the signature " Z.," remarked that Orioles are amongst the 



T 



