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ORIOLE BABBLER. 
Crateropus oriolides, Swains. 
PLATE XXXL 
Olive ; beneath yellow ; white and neck with a black hood ; 
the feathers edged with silvery white, and scale-like. 
The singular bird we are now to describe is yery 
common on the Western Coast of Africa, but seems 
never to have been found in any other region*. Its 
structure is so peculiar, that we cannot at present 
venture to offer any definite opinion on its actual 
position in the family. It certainly has a closer 
affinity to the Babblers than to any other group of 
thrushes, but whether it forms part of that circle, 
or enters among the Orioles, is very doubtful. It is, 
indeed, with much hesitation that we retain it under 
the generic name of Crateropus, for its slender and 
lengthened bill is altogether peculiar. It seems inti- 
mately related to Donacobius, the only representa- 
tion of the Babblers in the New World. But for its 
feet, it might be taken for a Meliphaga, while its 
* We possess six or seven specimens of this bird (or at 
least, so far as we oan judge from Mr. Swainson's drawing 
and description, one very closely allied) from Southern 
Africa. They were received from different collectors, and 
either one or two specimens from Dr. Smith. — W. J. 
