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GOLDEN ORIOLE. 
chiefly in rivers contiguous to the sea, although it is sometimes killed 
in waters more remote : it is a quick diver, and not easily shot, except 
on the wing. It is seldom caught in decoys, hut we have frequently 
bought them in Bristol market, where they are indiscriminately sold 
for widgeons. They retire northward to breed, and are found at that 
season in Norway and Sweden. They are well known on the sea coast 
of America and also on the lakes and rivers of the interior, where they 
associate in small parties, and are known by the vigorous whistling of 
their wings as they pass through the air. -They leave that country for 
the north in the month of April.* 
GOLDEN ORIOLE {^Oriolus galbula, Linn^us.) 
*Oriolus Galbula, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 160. 1. — Gmel. Syst. p. 382. sp. 1. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. 1. p. 186. sp. 45.. — Coracias Oriolus, Fauna Suec. No. 95. — Galbula, 
Rail, Syn. p. 68. 5.— Will. p. 147. t. 36. 38.^ — Oriolus, Briss. 2. p. 320. t. 58. 
— Ib. 8vo. 1. p. 247. — Le Loriot, Buff. Ois. 3. p. 254. t. 17. — Ib. pi. Enl. 26. 
the male. — Man. d’Orn. 1. p. 129. — Gelbe Rac.be, Bechst. Naturg. Deut, 
2. p. 1292. — Gelber Pirol, Meyer, Tasschenb. Deut. 1. p. 108. — Witwall, Will. 
(Angl.) p. 198. — Yellow Bird from Bengal, Albin, 3. t. 19. — Golden Thrush, 
Ediv. t. 185. — Golden Oriole, Br. Zool. App. p. 41. t. 4. — Lewin’s Br. Birds, 
2. t. 43. — Lath. Syn. 2. p. 449. 43. — Ib. Supp. p. 89. — Mont. Orn. Diet. — Ib. 
Supp. — Don. Br. Birds, 1. t. 7. — Bewick’s Supp. to Br. Birds. — Selby, pi. 35. 
fig. 1. & 2. p. 90.* 
This is the only species ever found in England, a few instances of 
which are only on record. It is about the size of a blackbird ; length 
nine inches and a half. The bill is brownish red ; irides red. General 
colour of the plumage fine golden yellow ; between the bill and eye a 
streak of black ; the wings black, marked here and there with yellow, 
and a patch of the same in the middle of the wing ; the two middle 
feathers of the tail are black, inclining to olive at the base, the very 
tips yellow ; the base half of the others black, the rest yellow ; legs 
lead-colour ; claws black. 
The female is of a dull greenish brown in those parts where the male 
is black. Wings dusky ; tail dirty green ; all but the two middle feathers 
yellowish white at the ends. 
This beautiful bird is not uncommon in France, where it breeds. 
The nest is curiously constructed, in shape like a purse : it is fastened 
to the extreme forked branches of tall trees, composed of fibres of 
hemp, or straw mixed with fine dry stalks of grass, and lined with 
moss and liver wort. She is said to be so tenacious of her eggs as to 
suffer herself to be taken on the nest. 
*Bechstein informs us, that in Germany they usually resort to the 
skirts of the forest, where they haunt the bushy branches and under- 
wood of the old and lofty trees, from which it is difficult to see or 
