36 
SMALL BILLED ORIOLE. 
size, and in the form of their hills. To place these 
distinctions in the clearest light, we shall subjoin a 
short description of Le Yaillant’s bird, first describ- 
ing that which inhabits Sierra Leone, and of which 
we hare examined three specimens. 
Size much smaller than the common European 
Oriole, the whole bird measuring only eight inches 
and three-quarters. The upper plumage is yellow- 
green, except those parts which adjoin the black of 
the head and throat, where the plumage is of the 
same yellow as the under parts. A black hood 
envelopes the head and fore part of the neck, where 
it is rounded off on the breast. The ground colour 
of the wjngs is black, but the lesser covers are green, 
while the greater and the secondary quills are mar- 
gined with grey ; the grey margins of the greater 
quills are narrower, and become white towmrds their 
tips ; the spurious quills are deep black, broadly 
tipt with white, so as to form a large conspicuous 
spot. The tail is much rounded; the four lateral 
feathers on each side are black at their base and 
yellow beyond, but the two middle pair of feathers, 
that is, the four in the centre of the tail, are entirely 
green, with merely a shade of yellow at the tips of 
two of them. The bill is red and short ; the culmen 
gradually curved from the base, more so, indeed, than 
in any oriole yet discovered ; the weak bristles which 
surround it are also longer and more numerous. 
Of this species three specimens were sent from 
Sierra Leone. One appears to he a female, as it 
wants the yellow on the nape and the upper part of 
