If unable to find a sufficient supply of berries, mulberries, figs, and cberries, of wbicb the Oriole is very fond, 
it resorts to caterpillars, worms, insects, and their larvae. During the first few days after their arrival they 
utter, especially in the morning and evening, a few detached notes — a kind of prelude to their usual flute-like 
cry, which is not poured forth before the 10th of May, by which time their voice has attained all its force and 
variety. From that date until the 15th or 20th of July they seem to say or only 
ou ri ou4foa 
fj 
— 
which is accompanied or preceded by a kind of mewing {onln-uhi). It is this song which has obtained for the 
bird the different names by which it is known in Savoy, according to the fancy of those who hear it. Tlius 
one says it articulates ouriou or louriou, others think it pronounces the words, les cerises sont mures (the 
cherries are ripe) ; it is from the latter that the saying has arisen, ‘ It is the Oriole who eats the cherries and 
leaves the stones;’ others, again, affirm that it says, combien det choz miz} (how much veal?).” After 
enumerating a number of places in which it breeds, M. Badly states that it habitually resorts to large trees, 
among which it is very difficult of approach. Sometimes it is attracted within shot by an imitation of its 
notes with the mouth or a bird-call ; but to be successful the imitation must be perfect, for if a false note 
be given, the bird changes its tone, and flies mewing ouin-uin. 
The nest is built in high trees ; and, during the first fortnight in May, the two sexes work together and 
firmly attach it to a bifurcation of the branches, often where they are so flexible that it is shaken by every 
wind that blows. They employ pieces of straw and hemp, with spiders’ webs and similar filaments to secure 
them to the branches, and to unite the whole together. One of these threads passes straight from one 
branch to the other, and forms the border of the nest in front ; another, rolled underneath, penetrates the 
material of the nest, and is wound round the opposite branch to give the work stability. The interior of 
the nest is composed of wool, spiders’ webs, caterpillars’ silk, the down of flowers, horsehair, and very fine 
blades of grass. As soon as the work is finished, the female deposits four or five eggs, which are mostly 
oblong in form, but some are attenuated, and terminate in a point : they are of a beautiful rosy white, 
spotted with black or brownish black, particularly at the larger end. The female sits so closely that I 
have twice seen her taken from the nest with the hands. The male feeds her while thus occupied, and 
takes her place for the few moments she occasionally leaves the nest. The young are hatched about tbe 
seventeenth or eighteenth day ; and the parents feed them with caterpillars, small worms, and sweet and 
tender fruits. If the young be taken, the parents continue lamenting for several days, and seem to claim 
their progeny by mewing on the very tree on which they were produced. If, during their desolation, they 
happen to discover where the captives are, they continue calling to them all day from the summit of the 
nearest tree ; and the captors, recognizing the cry, place the cage with the young on a tree near to their house. 
The parents will then give them food through the bars for a time, but cease to do so as soon as they judge 
them capable of feeding themselves : this cessation often takes place without being noticed, and the young 
are left to die in their prison ; when this occurs, the ignorant country-people imagine that the parents have 
poisoned them in despair of ever seeing them again at liberty. 
The young are reared with much difficulty, from a supply of their usual food not being easily procurable ; 
they may, however, be fed suceessfully with bread-crumbs, hemp-seed, and kernels pounded together, bits of 
raw fresh meat, worms, the larvae of silk-worms, and dried fruits, which latter must be softened before beinjr 
given to them. They soon become familiar and even attached to the person who takes care of them, and 
will eat out of his or her hand. 
All the members of the genus Oriolus are inhabitants of the Old World, none being found in America. 
Two or three are natives of Africa, and as many more of India and China ; but by far the finest of the whole 
are found in the Philippines and the other islands lying southward, as far as Australia. Orioles also occur in 
Java and Sumatra. Wherever they are, their habits and economy are very similar. When hanging in 
search of food from the outermost branches of the green-foliaged trees, which they all do more or less, 
they exhibit many graceful actions. As might be inferred from the lengthened and pointed form of their 
wings, they have a quicker and more Swallow-like flight than the true Thrushes. 
That the young may be brought up in cages is certain ; for I saw four which had been thus reared in the 
Zoological Gardens at Amsterdam. These nestling birds, which had been taken about the 18th of July, 
differed from the adult in the more sombre hue of their plumage, in having the bill of a purplish flesh- 
colour, the irides dark brown, and their thick and swollen tarsi of a pale blue. 
The Plate represents a male of the size of life, and contains a reduced figure of the female and nest. Tbe 
latter sex is figured in the colouring usually seen ; but, as mentioned before, it is said that she sometimes 
assumes the colouring of the male. The plant is the common Maple (^Acer campestre'). 
