ORIOLUS CHINENSIS, Linn. 



(Philippine Oriole.) 



Le Loriot de la Cochinchme, Brisson, Ornithologie, ii. p. 326, pi. 33, fig. l (1760). 



Oriolus chinensis, Linn. S. N. i. p. 160 (1766, ex Briss.) -Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 232 (1845).-Blyth, Journ. 



Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xv. p. 46 (1845).-Id. Cat. Birds Mus. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, p. 215 (1849).— 



Horsfield & Moore, Cat. Birds Mus. East-India Co. i. p. 270 (1854).-Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i. 



p. 292 (1869).-Sharpe, Catalogue of Birds, iii. p. 203 (1877).-Id. Transactions of the Linnean 



Society, 2nd series, Zool. vol. i. (1877). 

 Le Couliavan de la Cochinchine, D'Aubent. PI. Enl. 570. 

 Oriolus aerorhynchus, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 97.-Gray & Mitchell, Gen. B. i. p. 232, pi. 58 (1845).— 



Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 348 (1850).-Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 104 (pt. 1867). 



— Walden & Layard, Ibis, 1872, p. 101.— Hume, Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 132. 

 Oriolus cochinchinensis, Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 348 (1850). 

 Broderipus aerorhynchus, Walden, Transactions of the Zoological Society, ix. p. 185 (1875). 



This is by no means a common species in collections ; and yet it is one of the first Orioles known to science, 

 having been described by Brisson more than one hundred years ago. From the account of the latter 

 author, there can be no doubt that the species described by him as coming from China was in reality the 

 Philippine bird ; and although I follow in this instance the nomenclature adopted by Mr. Sharpe, I confess 

 that I attach with regret the name chinensis to a bird which we now know positively never to occur in 

 China. This is the more to be deplored, as there actually exists in China an Oriole belonging to the 

 same black-naped section of the genus as the present bird. 



When the Marquis of Tweeddale published his paper on the birds of the Philippine archipelago, the 

 species was known to occur in the islands of Luzon, Guimaras, Negros, and Zebu, from all of which 

 Dr. Meyer had obtained specimens. Dr. Steere, further, procured it in Mindanao and Balabac. Lord Tweed- 

 dale gives an interesting account of the plumages in this species, which I transcribe entire : — " A large series 

 of individuals obtained by Dr. Meyer illustrates the varying relative proportion of yellow and black on the 

 head in different examples of this fine Oriole. In a Luzon female, immature, the middle rectrices are tinged 

 with green ; the enclosed yellow frontal space extends fully for seven-eighths of an inch from the base of the 

 culmen. In a perfectly adult Guimaras male with jet-black middle rectrices and quills, and rich orange- 

 golden dorsal plumage, the forehead only is yellow, occupying a depth of only two-eighths of an inch. This 

 example, in the distribution and proportions of its black and yellow plumage, is almost absolutely identical 

 with a Sula-Island specimen of B. frontalis (Wallace). The Sula example, however, has the middle pair 

 of rectrices entirely black, whereas all the Philippine examples have those feathers more or less tipped with 

 yellow; moreover the Philippine is a much larger bird, with a longer wing and bill. The extent of yellow 

 at the termination of the middle pair of rectrices varies very considerably. In a Negros male in full golden- 

 orange plumage the tips of the middle pair are but barely fringed with yellow. In a Luzon male in similar 

 dress the two middle rectrices have a yellow terminal band nearly half an inch in depth." 



Adult. — Above bright golden yellow ; lores, feathers round the eye, hinder crown, and nape black, forming 

 a broad horseshoe ; sides of face, neck, and entire under surface of body bright yellow, like the back : wing- 

 coverts bright golden yellow; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, with a spot of yellow at the 

 tip of the outer web of the inner secondaries, increasing on the innermost, where it occupies nearly the 

 entire outer web ; tail black, broadly tipped with bright yellow, this occupying the terminal third of the 

 outermost rectrix and gradually decreasing towards the centre of the tail, the two centre feathers being 

 merely tipped with yellow ; " bill pink-rose-coloured ; feet and claws blue-grey " (Meyer). Total length 

 11*5 inches, culmen 1*45, wing 6*2, tail 4*35, tarsus 1*1 (Sharpe's Cat. B. I.e.'). 



Young Male. — Differs from the adult in being greener on the back, the quills and tail-feathers brown 

 instead of black ; two centre tail-feathers olive-greenish, the rest greenish at the base, the tips broadly 

 yellow, with a subterminal blackish shade ; head dull yellow, with a horseshoe mark on the hinder part of 

 the crown dusky black streaked with yellow ; sides of face and under surface of body bright yellow, with a 

 few narrow streaks of black on the chest. Total length 10*2 inches, culmen 1*35, wing 5-6, tail 4*3, 

 tarsus 1 (Sharpe, Cat. B. /. c). 



The figure in the Plate is drawn from a beautiful Manila skin in my own collection, of the size of life. 



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