Letters , Announcements , fyc. 
20 7 
Sirs,—-I n * The Ibis * for January last, p. 89, you express 
your regret that the “ grave error ” of charging the Golden 
Oriole with eating fruits, especially cherries, should have 
been sanctioned and propagated by one of the new groups of 
Birds in the British Museum. I should be the very last to 
cast any aspersion on the character of this old favourite of 
mine; but I must express it, not as my opinion, but as the 
result of direct observation, that, in South Germany, Orioles 
feed freely on ripe sweet cherries. So far as I know, the 
only way of catching them is by snares baited with cherries, 
and those which I had alive were so caught. The group 
to which you take objection was made up from my distinct 
recollection of the home of a pair of cherry-eating Orioles. 
Nevertheless, I should have considered it a grave error to 
doubt the correctness of observations made in other parts of 
the country, and was quite prepared to be taught that the 
Golden Oriole is only locally a cherry-eater. However, on 
referring to the original statement by your authority, M. 
Crette de Palluel, I find that he certainly does not contradict 
the fact which I intended to represent in that group, but 
rather that he attempts to prove too much. After having 
stated that he had captured a great number of Orioles to 
examine the contents of their stomachs (the greater the pity!), 
and that he had found them gorged with noxious insects, 
with only a small quantity of fruit in some, he winds up with 
the following words, which were omitted by you:—“ The 
Oriole does not digest the seeds of the fruits which it eats ; 
it is therefore the natural propagator of fruit-trees, and not 
their enemy.” As a matter of fact, it is just as well to state 
that the Golden Oriole does not swallow the stones of the 
cherries which it eats. 
Having before me M. Oustalefs Report, I was also 
tempted by your notice of it to read his account of using 
electricity in the capture of birds, as it seemed to me an 
extraordinary statement in a report addressed to a Minister 
of Public Instruction and Pine Arts, who might be supposed 
to be acquainted with the elements of physical science. I 
do not think that the procedure, as described by M. Oustalet > 
