194 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



district. One in the garden of The Cliff, at East Harnham, where 

 it stayed for a week or more in the spring. Another, a cock bird, 

 at Britford, in February, 1872. This bird haunted a particular 

 thorn bush for two or three days, which it could scarcely be induced 

 to leave, always returning to its favorite resting-place, as soon as I 

 had withdrawn from the vicinity. I saw another male bird about 

 November, at Odstock in the autumn of 1875, from which parish 

 also, I obtained a nice specimen for my collection, a year or two 

 previously, which was shot in Odstock Copse. I have also seen 

 several of them on the downs at Ebbesborne, about eleven miles 

 from Salisbury, flying from one stunted thorn bush to another, 

 always keeping just out of harm's way. I have also noticed them 

 on the cliffs between Weymouth and Lul worth, and round Broadmoor, 

 in Berkshire. A fine cock bird was killed by flying against the 

 telegraph wires, near Grately, in 1867, and is now in Mr. Norwood's 

 collection, and Champion, our village bird-catcher, tells me he has 

 not unfrequently trapped them on the downs. King has specimens 

 brought to him most years from the neighbourhood of Warminster ; 

 while Mr. Baker, of Mere, tells me, they are seen in varying 

 quantities on the downs in that district every spring and autumn. 

 At Bathford, also, they are well known, where I heard rumours of a 

 nest of the species having been found, but I cannot obtain sufficient 

 evidence to verify the statement. But they are very fond of the 

 rocks and broken ground that is to be found just above the village, 

 and which might have formed a sufficient temptation for a pair of 

 these birds for once to have made their home amongst us. The hen 

 bird would doubtless often escape detection, the half-crescent on the 

 breast being not nearly so well defined as in the cock. 



Oriolus Galbula. " The Golden Oriole/'' This splendid bird it 

 is impossible for any, even the most unobservant person, to pass 

 without noticing, and were it not for the extremely bright plumage 

 of the cock bird, which renders discovery almost inevitable, it would, 

 I believe, be found to breed in our island more frequently than it 

 does. A pair of these birds was seen in the spring of 1877, on 

 some crab trees, at Dinton, on Mr. W. Wyndham's property. They 

 were observed by a friend of the Rev. R. S. Shaw Woodgate, then 



