GOLDEN ORIOLE. 409 



legs are brown. The female is of a yellowish 

 olive-colour, paler or more inclining to a whitish 

 cast beneath) where it is also varied by scattered 

 longitudinal dusky streaks: the wings and tail are 

 darker than the rest of the plumage, and the latter 

 tipped with yellow, as in the male. The males of 

 the first year resemble the females, and do not 

 arrive at their full perfection of colour till they 

 are two years old. 



The best figures of this species yet extant are 

 those of Edwards and the Planches Enluminees, 

 both of which express with great correctness the 

 elegant shape and plumage of the bird: the latter 

 is copied into the present work. 



The Golden Oriole is remarkable for construct- 

 ing its nest upon a different principle from those 

 of the generality of European birds, supporting it 

 only by the edge or rim, so that it bears the ap- 

 pearance of a shallow purse or basket. For this 

 purpose the bird selects the forked extremity of 

 some slender branch, and wreathing the two forks 

 round with straws, grasses, or other vegetable 

 fibres proper for the purpose, at length connects 

 the two extremities of the fork in order to form 

 the verge of the nest; then, continuing the straws 

 from the one side to the other, giving the whole a 

 proper deptli, and crossing and interweaving them 

 as the work proceeds, forms the general basket or 

 concavity, which is afterwards thickened with the 

 stems of the finer grasses, intermixed with mosses 

 and lichens, and lastly lined with still finer ma- 

 terials, as the silken bags of the chrysalides of 



V. VII. p. II. 27 



