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| Orioles nesting in maple tree as depicted in Gould's fine book |
Though scarce, the Golden Oriole is a regular summer visitor to Britain, with four reported from one county - Lincolnshire - just since the start of this week. Among its Victorian admirers was artist-commentator John Gould who describes the species thus in The Birds of Great Britain (1873).
It is possible that some of my readers who are not very intimately acquainted with our native birds may think that I am introducing to their notice a species which does not fairly belong to our avifauna.
But this I can assure them is not the case, for this lovely bird has doubtless regularly visited our islands in summer from before the landing of Julius Caesar.
To enumerate all the specimens which have been shot would fill several pages.
In Mr. Stevenson’s Birds of Norfolk, no fewer than 20 are recorded as having been captured or seen in that county alone.
The works of Yarrell and Thompson contain many similar notices of its occurrence in other counties, both of England and Ireland.
Mr. Rodd, in his recently published List of the Birds of Cornwall, mentions several instances of its appearance in that part of England, and the Hon. Evelyn Boscawen saw a fine male, a year or two ago, on the terrace-wall at Tregothnan.
An adult male, in full plumage, which had been shot on April 26,1858, was placed in my hands the next day, by Mr. Leadbeater; and, were it desirable or necessary, many instances might be cited of its having been seen in our southern and western counties.
But, although the bird is so frequently found in Britain, it can only be regarded as an occasional visitant since our islands do not lie in the direct line of its migrations.
That those individuals which cross the straits and resort to our shores have occasionally bred here, and, if unmolested, would still
do so, cannot he doubted.
Should any of my readers wish to see it in a state of nature, they have only to make a journey to the quiet town of Leyden, and there, on any fine spring morning, they will hear the flute-like note of the male and perchance find one of its nests among the trees growing in the very streets of that celebrated seat of learning.
During the summer, it may also be seen in every suitable locality of
the Continent, from the shores of the Mediterranean to Finland.
Being strictly a migrant, it leaves its African winter quarters in April, and, after having spent the summer in the more northern countries of Europe, returns again in September to its winter home among the Atlas range or even further south.
In speaking of the birds of Malta and Gozo, Mr. Wright says: "This strikingly beautiful bird is a regular visitor in the spring, where it arrives in small flocks and would probably breed were it not disturbed.
"It is very common sometimes in San Antonio Gardens, and is very destructive to the fruit of the Japan medlars of which it appears to be exceedingly fond.
"Occasionally females, probably old birds, are found in the brilliant plumage of the males.
"A few also repass in September."
Meanwhile, Lieut. R. M. Sperling says: "This beautiful and essentially Mediterranean bird meets the eye round the whole of the northern coast.
"Migrating from Africa about the middle of April, it spreads through the deep olive-woods of Corfu, the dark caroh-trees of Malta, and the thick bay and myrtle covers of Albania and Greece.
"It is a shy and retiring bird, and generally appears like a golden gleam as it darts through dark-green foliage; but, by sitting perfectly still, I have been enabled to watch its graceful motions for half-an- hour within five or ten yards of me."
Mr. H. E. Dresser, who has favoured me with a short note respecting the bird as observed by him in Finland, says: "In the southern and eastern parts it is very generally distributed, but I do not think it is
found higher than Abo.
"At the country-seat of my friend Mr. Hackman (Hertnala, near Wiborg), where I spent the summer of 1856, at least four pairs must have had nests, but I could not succeed in finding them.
"The Finns call this bird 'Kuhankeittaja' from its peculiar whistle."
The species nests 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 the 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, recognising 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 successfully with breadcrumbs, hemp-seed and kernels pounded together, bits of raw fresh meat, worms, the larvae of silkworms, and dried fruits which latter must be softened before being 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 July 18,
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.
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