214 
BIEDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
208. ORIOLUS MELANOCEPHALUS. 
THE BLACK-HEADED ORIOLE. 
Oriolus melanocephalus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 160; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 110; Hume, 
Nests and Eggs, p. 301 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 139 ; Shmye, Cat. Birds B.Mus. iii. p. 215 ; 
Oates, S. F. vii. p. 48 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 281 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 660 ; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 99 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 357. Oriolus ceylonensis, 
Bonap. Consp. i. p. 347 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. Ill ; Hume, S. F. i. p. 439. Oriolus 
himalayanus, Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 358. 
Description. — Male. The whole head^ chin and throat and the upper 
breast black. With this exception the whole of the body-plumage is bright 
yellow ; coverts to primaries black with yellow tips forming a wing-spot ; 
winglet black ; the upper wing-coverts yellow ; the first primary wholly 
black, the others black tipped with yellow and obsoletely margined with 
yellowish white on the outer web ; secondaries and tertiaries black with 
broad diagonal tippings of yellow on the outer webs, gradually extending 
also to the inner web ; the last tertiary or two wholly yellow on the outer 
web ; tail yellow, the centre pair of feathers black on their terminal half 
with a yellow tipping, the next pair with less black and a greater yellow 
tipping, and tlie tliird pair with merely a small patch of black on the outer 
web (absent in very old birds). The shafts of all the rectrices black. 
The female is very much like the male, but has the yellow of the back 
and breast less bright with sometimes a tinge of green. 
The young are yellow on the forehead, streaked with black ; the crown 
and nape blackish edged with yellow ; the chin, throat and sides of the 
head white, streaked with black ; the other parts of the plumage are much 
as in the adult but duller. 
In the adult the iris is crimson, the eyelids plumbeous, the inside of the 
mouth flesh-colour, the bill pinkish, the legs plumbeous and the claws dark 
horn-colour. The young have the iris brown and the bill varying from 
blacky when quite young, to pink varied with dusky, when older. 
Length 9*5 inches, tail 3'4, wing 5*4, tarsus 1, bill from gape 1*3. The 
female is usually smaller. 
The race from Ceylon, 0. ceylonensis, is, in typical birds, smaller with 
less yellow on the wing. Major Legge has shown that the well-known 
name melanocephalus which Linnseus bestowed on a black-headed Oriole 
from India really applies to this Cingalese form, and he has proposed the 
name of 0. himalayanus for the larger continental bird. 
I do not, however, propose to separate the two forms, and thus Linnseus's 
well-known name will be retained here. 
The Black-headed Oriole is common and a constant resident in all parts 
of British Burmah, except south of Mergui, where, according to Mr. Davi- 
