92 ORIOLE. 



yellow ; irides blue ; the plumage consists of two colours only, the 

 greater part full black, but on the middle of the wing is a large 

 patch of golden yellow ; the lower part of the back, rump, belly, 

 and vent also yellow ; and the tail, for three-fourths of the length, of 

 the same fine yellow, the rest black ; thighs yellow, in some black ; 

 legs blaek. 



Inhabits Brazil and Cayenne, and other warm parts of America, 

 as far as Paraguay, and makes a most curious nest, in the shape of 

 an Alembic, about one foot and half in length, composed of dried 

 grass, and a substance like hair,* or what appears to be so : the 

 bottom for one foot upwards is hollow like a purse, the remainder 

 or upper part, for half a foot being solid ; and it hangs by the top, 

 on the extremity of a branch of a tree ; often built near houses ; 

 and one tree has been known to contain above 400 nests ; the bird 

 said not unfrequently to bring up three broods in a year. 



A.— Black and yellow Daw of Brazil, Edw. pi. 319, Gen. Spi. i. 419. B. 



This seems a trifle bigger ; has a purplish lustre in the black of 

 the plumage, and some of the yellow feathers, which compose the 

 spot on the wings, tipped with black. 



One of these in the collection of Mr. Mc. Leay, was named 

 Assewaka; the feathers had a musky, castor-like, smell. 



* Probably the Tillandsia usneoides, which may easily be mistaken for horse-hair. The 

 bird may perhaps be the Petite Pe of Fermini, but his description merely is, that the 

 colours are prettily diversified, and yellow from the middle of the back to the rump. He 

 adds, that it easily learns to talk a number of words; makes the nest on the tops of high 

 trees ; lays six or eight eggs, spotted with black, living on insects, and small birds, also 

 their eggs; advances by hopping, and always flirts up the tail ; is bold enough to attack 

 birds of prey, a9 well as leverets, and other such game. — Descrip. de Surin. ii. p. 167. 



