1846.] or Little Known Species of Birds. 45 



phagidous bird, and under the generic name Mimeta, has been classed 

 in the present family. Mr. Gould, in his great work on the birds of 

 Australia, has lately established its true generic position; which in- 

 deed had been previously indicated by various other systematists. 



In XI, 797, I made some attempt to review the Asiatic Orioles, and 

 shall now (with much more extensive materials) resume the subject. 

 The species are as follow : — 



1. 0. Traillii; Pastor Traillii, Vigors and Gould. Common in 

 the eastern Himalaya, and occurs in Assam, Arracan, and Burmah. This 

 bird has been placed in all sorts of genera, certain of which have been 

 established for its reception, as Psarophilus of Jardine and Selby : Mr. 

 Hodgson long ago recorded his opinion that it is a true Oriole, 

 and in this I quite coincide. Mr. G. R. Gray refers it to Analcipus 

 of Swainson, founded on Ocypterus sanguinolentus of Temminck, p. 

 c. 499 ; and another species which Mr. Swainson arranges with 

 it, is his An. hirundinaceus , (Nat. Libr., ' Menageries', p. 284,) a 

 bird which he also assigns to India ; but Mr. Strickland, who has 

 recently examined the originals (now at Cambridge) of many of Mr. 

 Swainson's descriptions, writes me word that the species in question is 

 scarcely separable from Artamus (v. Ocypterus) , and that it is labelled 

 from Madagascar. How, therefore, such a bird can have any near 

 affinity for an Oriole, and a most decided Oriole (in my opinion), is far 

 from being easy to understand. 



2. 0. melanocephalus, Lin.: 0. maderaspatanus, Franklin (the female) ; 

 0. McCoshii, Tickell (young male). Very common in Bengal, also in 

 Nepal, Assam, Arracan, and southward to the Tenasserim Provinces ; 

 and in some parts of the Peninsula of India, whilst in other parts it is 

 rather scarce. Length of a male nine inches and a half, by sixteen 

 inches ; wing five and a quarter, and tail three and a half ; of a female 

 nine and a quarter, by fifteen inches : bill to forehead an inch and 

 three-eighths ; to gape, one and five- eighths ; tarse seven-eighths of an 

 inch. The black-headed Oriole of South Africa, considered identical by 

 Sykes (P. Z. S. 1835, p. 62), is a conspicuously different species, with 

 no yellow on the wings : it is the Turdus monachus, Gm., termed 

 0. capensis by Swainson ; who also names another black-headed Oriole, 

 more nearly allied to the Indian species, but from Sierra Leone, 0. 

 brachyrhynchus, (' Birds of West Africa.' Nat. Libr.) 



