104 
GOLDEN ORIOLE. 
but is placed in the horizontal cleft of a branch, 
and each side is included in the substance of the 
sides of the nest. The structure, moreover, has 
the appearance of being delicate and careful. The 
eggs are of a beautiful clear white, relieved by deep 
black spots, most numerous on the thicker end. 
The specimens which have been obtained in 
this country have been all taken at uncertain 
intervals ; but being a bird of such marked 
plumage, the occurrence of one is generally 
heard of. It takes place generally about the 
time of migration ; and in corroboration, we 
have it remarked by Mr Couch,* that it occasion- 
ally alights on the fishing boats. In Scotland, 
we have very few instances of its capture, Mr 
Selby mentions that his drawings were made 
from two specimens in the Edinburgh Museum, 
shot near the Pentland Hills. In Ireland, Mr 
Thompson has recorded five different instances. 
The body of the adult male is clear and 
brilliant yellow ; the wings, and the space between 
the bill and the eye, deep black ; the quills are 
edged, and tipped with yellowish white, which 
sometimes extends to the tips of the secondaries ; 
the tips of the feathers forming the spurious quills 
are of the same yellow with the body, forming a 
triangular spot of that colour when the wing is 
closed ; the two centre feathers of the tail are 
entirely black, those on each side black only at 
the base, the tips yellow, which colour increases 
in extent towards the outside, the last quill 
* Fauna of Cornwall. 
