OBNITHOLOGICAL NOTES FROM THE BHINE. 05 



grating alarm-note. I made a careful approach, but there was 

 something mysterious about the way in which the birds stole 

 from tree to tree without showing themselves. Finally, how- 

 ever, amongst the yellow of the young oak-leaves, I got a glimpse 

 of brighter gold, as two male birds, hopping and fluttering from 

 branch to branch, came into the field of my pocket-telescope. 

 After this the Oriole soon became common, and was distributed 

 all through the woods wherever oaks occurred. I could hear half 

 a dozen in a short evening walk along the margin of the forest. 

 But they were invariably shy and wary to the last degree. Time 

 after time I have followed up the call, only, as the result of a 

 patient and noiseless stalk, to hear it give place to a harsh 

 rasping alarm-note as the bird went off. When most successful, 

 I got a hasty glimpse of the bird as it changed its whereabouts 

 in the tree ; a good leisurely view of it, never. But I learnt 

 during these stalks that the call-note is merely thrown in as an 

 accompaniment to a low chattering song, rather suggestive of the 

 Starling. This song is not heard until one gets close to the per- 

 former, who whistles, sings, and squalls by turns. The Oriole 

 was constantly to be heard in the Botanic Garden, and a pair of 

 them doubtless bred there. In the latter half of July I frequently 

 heard a rippling hawk-like call, which I supposed to be the note 

 of the young. The male was in song up to Aug. 6th, on which 

 date I heard all the different notes well. 



A noteworthy feature in the forest was the scarcity of Wood 

 Pigeons. In ten square miles of woodland there were fewer than 

 in most English plantations of as many acres. Ants swarmed, 

 and consequently Green Woodpeckers were numerous. Some of 

 them were probably the grey-headed Gecinus canus, but I never 

 identified it with certainty. Pied Woodpeckers preferred the 

 more remote part of the forest. I was always on the look-out for 

 Dendrocopus medius, but of the few which I saw at close quarters 

 all appeared to be the Greater Spotted, D. major. The Wood 

 Wren occurred sparingly in the forest, always where beech 

 timber prevailed. 



But birds were far less abundant in the forest than in the 

 low-lying district round the mouth of the Sieg. Here, in poplars, 

 was the only rookery which I met with, for while Carrion Crows 

 were ubiquitous, Rooks were few and unobtrusive. In the woods 



Zool. 4th ser. vol. L. Feb. 1897. f 



