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470.   Oriolus kundoo, Sykes.

Sykes, Cat. 60 (the young or female) - O. galbula, apud Sykes, Cat. 58 - Blyth, Cat, 1304 - Horsf., Cat. 418 - O. aureus, apud Jerdon, Cat. 97 - O. galbuloides, Gould  -  Pilak, Hind. i. e., the yellow bird -  Vanga-pandu, Tel.  -  Pawseh, Mahr. - Mango-bird of Europeans in India.

The Indian Oriole.

Descr. - Male, bright yellow ; a black stripe from the base of the bill through the eves for a short distance beyond ; wings black, with a yellow bar formed by the primary- coverts and the tips and outer edges of the quills; tail with the central feathers back ; the next pair black with abroad yellow tip; and the others black at the base, and yellow for the greater part of their terminal length. Bill deep lake-red; legs plumbeous ; irides rich blood-red.

Length 9 1/2 inches, wing 5 1/2 ; tail 3 1/2; bill at front. 1 ; tarsus 1.

The young bird is yellowish-green above ; the rump, vent, the inner webs of the tail feathers at their tips, and the sides of abdomen, bright yellow ; wings olive-brown ; body beneath whitish, with brown stripes ; bill black.

The adult female differs from the male in a slightly greenish tint above. This Oriole differs from the European O. galbula, only in the black eye streak extending to the ear- coverts, in the wing being shorter, and the bill proportionally longer. It extends over the whole peninsula of India (except Lower Bengal) up to the base of the Himalayas. On the Malabar Coast it is perhaps not so common as O.  elanocephalus. It does not occur in the countries to the east of the Bay of Bengal. In the South of India it is most abundant in the cold weather ; In the Deccan, according to Sykes, in the hot weather just before the rains; and in Central India, during the rains, when it breeds; but it is to be found, at all seasons, in every part of the country in small numbers. It prefers a well-wooded country, but not deep forests ; and lives in large groves of trees, gardens, and avenues. It chiefly feeds on fruit, especially on the figs of the Banian and Pakur, on Mulberries, &c., also occasionally on caterpillars, and other soft-bodied Insects. Its flight is strong, but undulating, with interrupted flappings. Its call is a loud mellow whistle, something resembling pee-ho ; and the voice of the European Oriole must be very similar, as it is given as puh-lo and biillow ; and the French name Loriot is said to be also given from its call.

I have seen the nest several times, and I described one in my Illustration of Indian Ornithology, under 0. Indicus, as follows : -  " It was a cup-shaped nest, slightly made with fine grass and roots, and suspended from a rather high branch by a few long fibres of grass ; these did not surround the nest but only supported it on two sides.   It contained three eggs, white, spotted, chiefly at the large end, with a very few large dark purple blotches."  I procured a nest at Saugor, from a high branch of a banian tree in cantonment. It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and suspended by a long roll of cloth about 3/4 inch wide, which It must have pilferred from the neighbouring verandah, where the tailor worked.   This strip was wound round each fork, then passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other fork and again brought round the nest, to the opposite side ; there were four or five of these supports on each side.  It was, indeed, a most curious nest, and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away.   The eggs were, as before described, white, with a few dark claret-colored spots.   Burgess describes a nest made of grass, spiders' web, hemp, and pieces of paper, placed In the fork of a tree, and two of the branches were bound together with the hemp,   Theobald also found the nest, a neat cup of woven grass, attached by Its side to the bough of a tree, and he describes the eggs as white, with black spots.   The only other species of Oriole of this section in Bonaparte's Conspectus, is 0. auratus. of Africa; but others are recorded elsewhere.
2nd, Black-naped Orioles (Broderipus, of Bonaparte), peculiar to the Indian region.

Adult Male.- Golden yellow, a blackish brown spot between the eye and the bill; wings and tail black ; a yellow spot on the quills not far from the middle of the wing when closed ; tail feathers terminated with yellow; bill reddish maroon ; iris red ; feet bluish grey.

Length.- 10 to 10.5 inches; bill at front 1; wing 5.9; tail 3.1; tarsus 0.8.

Adult Female.- Greenish olive above, greyish white with a yellowish tinge below, where the plumage is marked by some white distant greyish brown stripes or dashes disposed longitudinally ; wings brown, bordered with olivace­ous grey; tail olivaceous, tinged with black ; beneath yellowish with a brownish black mark somewhat in the form of an irregular Y; no dark streak behind the bill and the eye.

Hab.- The whole of Europe, S.-W. Asia, South Asia, South Africa and Persia.   A visitant in Sind during October and November.

Adult Male.- Bright golden yellow above and below ; lores, feathers round the eye and a streak through the eye black; scapulars externally black; the edge of the wing and a bar formed by the primary coverts yellow ; the bases of the primary coverts black; quills black ; the primaries edged with yellow; secondaries with yellow tips ; tail with the central feathers black and narrowly yellow tipped, the next pair black, with a broad yellow tip, the others black at the base and yellow for the greater part of their terminal length ; under wing and tail-coverts golden yellow ; bill deep lake red ; legs plumbeous; irides blood-red.

Length.-9 to 9.5 inches; wing 5.5 ; tail 3.5 ; tarsus 0.95. The female is like the male, but with a slightly greenish tint.

Hab.- Throughout India to Nepaul, Cashmere and Eastern Turkistan. Probably a resident in Sind, but nothing is known of its nidification in the Province. Specimens have been obtained in April, June, September and December.   The September birds were the young of the year.

Oriolus kundoo, (Sykes), Jerdon B. Ind. ii. p. 107; Hume, Rough Draft N. & E. no. 470.

The Indian Oriole breeds from May to August (the great majority, however, laying in June and July) almost throughout the plains country of India and in the lower ranges of the Himalayas to an elevation of 4000 feet. In Southern and Eastern Bengal it only, so far as I know, occurs as a straggler during the cold season, and I have no information of its breeding there. It does not apparently ascend the Nilgiris, and throughout the southern portion of the peninsula it breeds very sparingly, if at all; indeed, it is just at the commencement of the breeding-season, when the mangoes are ripening, that Upper India is suddenly visited by vast numbers of this species migrating from the south.

The nest is placed on some large tree, I do not think the bird has any special preference, and is a moderately deep purse or pocket, suspended between some slender fork towards the extremity of one of the higher boughs. From below it looks like a round ball of grass wedged into the fork, and the sitting bird is completely hidden within it; but when in the hand it proves to be a most beautifully woven purse, shallower or deeper as the case may be, hung from the fork of two twigs, made of fine grass and slender strips of some tenacious bark and bound round and round the twigs, and secured to them much as a prawn-net is to its wooden framework. Some nests contain no extraneous matters, but others have all kinds of odds and ends - scraps of newspaper or cloth, shavings, rags, snake-skins, thread, etc. interwoven in the exterior. The interior is always neatly lined with fine grass-stems.

Very commonly the bird so selects the site for its nest that the leaves of the twigs it uses as a framework form more or less of a shady canopy overhead; in fact, as a rule, it is from very few points of view that even a passing bird of prey can catch sight of the female on her eggs. Possibly the brilliant plumage of the bird, which has endowed it amongst the natives with the name of Peeluk, (The Yellow One) may have had something to do with the concealment it so generally affects.

The nests vary a good deal in size. I have seen one with an internal cavity 3½ inches in diameter and over 2½ deep. I have seen others scarcely over 2½ inches in diameter and not 2 in depth, which you could have put bodily, twigs and all, inside the former. As a rule, the purse is strong and compact, the material closely matted and firmly bound together; but I have seen very flimsy structures, through which it was quite possible to see the eggs.

Four is the greatest number of eggs I have ever found in one nest, but it is quite common to find only three well-incubated ones.

Colonel C. H. T. Marshall reports having found several nests of this species about Murree at low elevations.

Mr. W. Blewitt tells me that he obtained two nests near Hansi (now in Haryana) on the 1st and 14th July respectively. The nests (which he kindly sent) were of the usual type, and were placed, the one on an acacia, the other on a loquat tree, at heights of 10 and 12 feet from the ground. Each contained three eggs, the one clutch much incubated, the other perfectly fresh.

Dr. Scully writes: "The Indian Oriole is a seasonal visitant to the valley of Nepal, arriving about the 1st of April and departing in August. It frequents some of the central woods, gardens, and groves, and breeds in May and June."

Colonel J. Biddulph remarks regarding the nidification of this Oriole in Gilgit: "A summer visitant and common. Appears about the 1st of May. Nest with three eggs hard-set, taken 8th of June; several other nests taken later on."

Writing from near Rohtak, Mr. F. R. Blewitt says: "The breeding-season is from the middle of May to July. The nest is made on large trees, and always suspended between the fork of a branch. I have certainly obtained more nests from the tamarind than any other kind of tree.

"The nest is cup-shaped, light, neat, and compact. The average outer diameter is 4·8 inches; the inner or cup-cavity about 3·6. Hemp-like fibre is almost exclusively used in the exterior structure of the nest, and by this it is firmly secured to the two limbs of the fork. Cleverly indeed is this work performed, the hemp being well wrapped round the stems and then brought again into the outer framework. Occasionally bits of cloth, thread pieces, vegetable fibres, etc. are introduced. On one occasion I got a nest with a cast-off snake-skin neatly worked into the outer material.

"The lining of the egg-cavity is simply fine grass, if we except the occasional capricious addition of a feather or two, an odd piece of cotton or rag, etc. Three appears to be the regular number of eggs. This bird is to be found in small numbers all over the country here; its habits are well described by Jerdon. It is, as I have observed, hard to please in its choice of a nest site. I have watched it for days going backwards and forwards, from tree to tree and from fork to fork, before it made up its mind where to commence work."

Capt. Hutton records that "this is a common bird in the Dhoon, and arrives at Jerripanee, elevation 4500 feet, in the summer months to breed. Its beautiful cradle-like nest was taken in the Dhoon on the 29th of May, at which time it contained three pure white eggs, sparingly sprinkled over with variously sized spots of deep purplish-brown, giving the egg the appearance of having been splashed with dark mud. The spots are chiefly at the larger end, but there is no indication of a ring. The nest is a slight, somewhat cup-shaped cradle, rather longer than wide, and is so placed, between the fork of a thin branch, as to be suspended between the limbs by having the materials of the two sides bound round them. It is composed of fine dry grasses, both blade and stalk, intermixed with silky and cottony seed-down, especially at that part where the materials are wound round the two supporting twigs; and in the specimen before me there are several small silky cocoons of a diminutive Bombyx attached to the outside, the silk of which has been interwoven with the fibres of the external nest. It is so slightly constructed as to be seen through, and it appears quite surprising that so large a bird, to say nothing of the weight of the three or four young ones, does not entirely destroy it."

From Futtehgurh, the late Mr. A. Anderson remarked: "The nest and eggs of this bird so closely resemble those of its European congener (O. galbula) that little or no description is necessary. The Mango-bird lays throughout the rains, July being the principal month. One very beautifully constructed nest was taken by me on the 9th July, 1872, containing four eggs, which, according to my experience, is in excess of the number usually laid. I have frequently taken only a pair of well-incubated eggs.

"Two of the four eggs above alluded to were quite fresh, while the other two were tolerably well incubated. The nest is fitted outwardly with tow, which I have never before seen. One of the pieces of cloth used in the construction of this nest was 6 inches long."

"At Lucknow," writes Mr. R. M. Adam, "I found this species on the 20th May building a nest in a neem-tree, and on the 24th I took two eggs from the nest. On the 10th June I saw another pair, only making love, so they probably did not lay till the end of that month."

Dr. Jerdon notes that he "procured a nest at Saugor from a high branch of a banian tree in cantonments. It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and suspended by a long roll of cloth about three quarters of an inch wide, which it must have pilfered from a neighboring verandah where a tailor worked. This strip was wound round each limb of the fork, then passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other limb, and again brought round the nest to the opposite side; there were four or five of these supports on either side. It was indeed a most curious nest, and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The eggs were white, with a few dark claret-colored spots."

Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing from Afghanistan: "At Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, in June, I found them in great numbers: some were breeding; but as I saw quite young birds, it is probable that the nesting-season was nearly over."

Colonel Butler contributes the following note: "The Indian Oriole breeds in the neighborhood of Deesa in the months of May, June, and July. I took nests on the following dates:

"24th May, 1876. A nest containing 1 fresh egg.
29th " " " " 3 fresh eggs.
12th June " " " 2 much incubated eggs.
12th " " " " 3 fresh eggs.
13th " " " " 2 "
19th " " " " 3 "
29th " " " " 2 "
29th " " " " 2 "
29th " " " " 3 "
3rd July " " " 2 "
6th " " " " 3 "
30th " " " " 2 "

"The nest found on the 24th May was suspended from a small fork of a neem-tree about ten feet from the ground, and was very neatly built of dry grass (fine interiorly, coarse exteriorly), old rags, and cotton (woven, not raw). The rim was firmly bound to the branches of the fork with rags and coarse blades of dry grass. It is an easy nest to find when the birds are building, as both birds are always together and keep constantly flying to and from the nest with materials for building. The cock, as before mentioned, always accompanies the hen to and from the nest whilst she is building; but I do not think he assists in its construction, as I never saw him carrying any of the materials, neither have I ever seen him on the nest. On the contrary, whilst the hen is at the nest building he is generally waiting for her, either on the same tree or else on another close by, occasionally uttering his well-known rich mellow note. On the 29th May I sent a boy up a tree to examine a nest. The hen bird had been sitting for a week, and was on the nest when the boy ascended the tree. The cock bird flew past, and being a brilliant specimen I shot him, thinking of course that the nest contained a full complement of eggs. To my astonishment, however, though the hen bird sat very close, there were no eggs in the nest, and although she returned to it once or twice afterwards, she eventually forsook it without laying. Possibly she may have laid, and that the eggs were destroyed by Crows. In addition to the materials already mentioned, this nest was also composed of tow, string, and strips of paper, all neatly woven into the exterior, and many of the other nests mentioned were exactly similar; sometimes I have found pieces of snake-skin woven into the exterior.

"On the 9th of July I observed a pair of Orioles building on a Neem tree in one of the compounds in Deesa. When the nest was nearly finished a gale of wind rose one night and scattered it all over the bough it was fixed to. The birds at once commenced to remove it, and in a couple of days carried off: every particle of it to another tree about 100 yards off, upon which they built a new nest of the materials they had removed from the other tree. I ascended the tree on the 17th of July, and found it contained three fresh eggs.

"The eggs are pure white, sparingly spotted with moderately-sized blackish-looking spots, if washed the spots run. They vary a good deal in shape and size, some being very perfect ovals, others greatly elongated, etc."

Major C. T. Bingham writes: "The Indian Oriole builds at Allahabad and at Delhi from the beginning of April to the end of July. In the cold weather this bird seems to migrate more or less, as but few are seen and none heard during that season. The nests are built generally at the top of mango-trees and well concealed; they are constructed of fine grass, beautifully soft, mixed with strips of plaintain-bark, with which, or with strips of cotton cloth purloined from somewhere, the nest is usually bound to a fork in the branch. The egg-cavity is pretty deep, that is to say from 1½ to 3 inches."

Mr. George Reid records the following note from Lucknow: "The Mango-bird, or Indian Oriole, though a permanent resident, is never so abundant during the cold weather as it is during the hot and rainy seasons from about the time the mango-trees begin to bloom to the end of September. It frequents gardens, avenues, mango-topes, and is frequently seen in open country, taking long flights between trees, principally the banian and other Fici, upon the berries and buds of which it feeds. I have the following record of its nests:

"June 16th. Nest and no eggs (building).
July 2nd. 2 eggs (fresh).
July 2nd. 1 egg (fresh).
July 5th. 3 eggs (fresh).
July 25th. 3 young (just hatched).
August 5th. 2 young (fledged)."

Messrs. Davidson and Wenden, writing of this bird in the Deccan, say: "Common, and breeds in June and July."

Colonel A. C. McMaster informs us that he "found several nests of this bird at Kamptee during June and July; they corresponded exactly with Jerdon's admirable description. Has any writer mentioned that this bird has a faint, but very sweet and plaintive song, which he continues for a considerable time? I have only heard it when a family, old and young, were together, i.e. at the close of the breeding-season."

Lieut. H. E. Barnes, writing of Rajpootana in general, tells us that this Oriole breeds during July and August.

Mr. C. J. W. Taylor, speaking of Manzeerabad in Mysore, says: "Abundant in the plains. Rare in the higher portions of the district. Breeding in June and July."

The eggs are typically a moderately elongated oval, tapering a good deal towards one end, but they vary much in shape as well as size. Some are pyriform, and some very long and cylindrical, quite the shape of the egg of a Cormorant or Solan Goose, or that of a Diver. They are always of a pure excessively glossy china-white, which, when they are fresh and unblown, appears suffused with a delicate salmon-pink, caused by the partial translucency of the shell. Well-defined spots and specks, typically black, are more or less thinly sprinkled over the surface of the egg, chiefly at the large end. Normally, as I said, the spots are black and sharply defined, and there are neither blotches nor splashes, but numerous variations occur. Sometimes, as in an egg sent me by Mr. Nunn, all the spots are pale yellowish brown. Sometimes, as in an egg I took at Bareilly, a few spots of this colour are mingled with the black ones. Deep reddish brown often takes the place of the typical black, and the spots are not very unfrequently surrounded by a more or less extensive brownish-pink nimbus, which in one egg I have is so extensive that the ground-colour of the whole of the large end appears to be a delicate pink. Occasionally several of the clear-cut spots appear to run together and form a coarse irregular blotch, and one egg I possess exhibits on one side a large splash. The eggs as a body, as might have been expected, closely resemble those of the Golden Oriole, to which the bird itself is so nearly related; and as observed by Professor Newton in regard to the eggs of that species, so in my large series, the prevalence of greatly elongated examples is remarkable.

The eggs vary in length from 1·03 to 1·32, and from 0·75 to 0·87 in breadth; but the average of fifty eggs measured was 1·11 by 0·81.

Oriolus kundoo, Sykes, F. Z. S. 1832, p. 87; Blyth, Cat. p. 216; Horsf. & M. Cat. i, p. 271; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 107; Hume & Henders. Lah. to York. p. 200, pl, xi; Hume, N. & E. p. 299; Scully, S. F. iv, p. 140; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 215 ; Hume, Cat. no. 470; Sharpe, Cat. B. M. iii, p. 194: Scully, S. F. viii, p. 297: id. Ibis, 1881, p. 440 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 193; Oates in Hume's N. & E. 2nd ed. i, p. 354.

THE GOLDEN ORIOLE
Oriolus oriolus (Linnaeus)

(Plate X, Fig. 3, opposite page 198)

Description:-
Length 9 inches. Male : Rich golden-yellow except a broad line through the eye, practically the whole of the wings and the central portions of the tail, which are black.

Female : Upper parts yellowish-green ; wings brown, the feathers tipped and edged with greenish; tail brownish-black tipped with yellow; under parts whitish, washed with yellow and streaked with dark brown.

Iris dark crimson ; bill dark pink ; legs dark slate. The tail is slightly rounded.

Field Identification:-
Shy and purely arboreal species, concealing itself in thick foliaged trees, its presence revealed by the liquid whistle wiel-a-wo. Male, a glorious golden-yellow, with black wings and tail; female greenish with dark wings and tail.

Distribution:-
The Golden Oriole is widely spread over Europe, Africa and Asia. The typical race just skirts Sind and Baluchistan on passage, but within our area we are really concerned with only one form, O. o. kundoo, which differs chiefly from the typical race in the fact that in the adult male the black of the lores, i.e., the eye-stripe, extends behind the eye. This form breeds in Turkestan and Gilgit, in Southern and Eastern Afghanistan, in the hill areas of Baluchistan, throughout Kashmir and the Western and Central Himalayas, and in the plains from Rajputana to Western Bengal and south to Mysore.   It winters also as far south as Cape Comorin.

In the mountain areas and in the northern part of the plains of India the Golden Oriole is merely a summer visitor, moving farther south in August and September and returning to its breeding grounds in April and May.

In the Himalayas it is found up to 1o,ooo feet, though in the outer ranges it is scarce at over 6000 feet.

Habits, etc:-
With the ripening of the mangoes in spring the Golden Oriole arrives in Northern India. To that circumstance, combined with the resemblance of the greens and yellows of the two sexes to the fruit and leaves of their favourite tree, is due the popular Anglo-Indian name of Mango-bird. Orioles are strictly arboreal, descending, as a rule, neither to undergrowth nor to the ground, and by nature they are very shy and secretive, keeping to the thickest portions of the boughs and being better known as disembodied voices than as birds; for the loud mellow whistle pee-ou-a or wiel-a-wo is one of the pleasantest and most familiar of Indian bird sounds, being heard alike in garden and forest, greeting the dawn and saluting the parting day. There is, in addition, a faint but very sweet and plaintive song, though from its very faintness it is little known. The flight is strong and dipping, though seldom long sustained, as the bird prefers to travel from tree to tree.

The food consists of insects, caterpillars, berries and fruit.

The breeding season ranges from May to August, but the great majority of eggs are laid in June and July.

The nest is built in some large tree, usually at a height of over 20 feet from the ground. It is a moderately deep cup, suspended invariably within a slender fork towards the extremity of one of the boughs, and often in a situation where no climber can reach. From below it looks like a round ball of grass wedged into the fork, and the sitting bird within is completely hidden; but in the hand it proves to be a most beautifully woven cup, hung from the fork of two twigs and secured to them, much as a prawn net is to its wooden framework. The cup is deep and rounded to prevent the eggs rolling out in a high wind. It is composed of fine grass and slender strips of tenacious bark fibres, and the ends of these are wound round and round the supporting twigs. Some nests contain no extraneous matter, but others have all sorts of odds and ends woven into the fabric, scraps of newspaper, rags, shavings, snake-sloughs, thread, and the like. There is always a neat lining of fine grass Stems. There is some variation in the thickness and size of the nests.

The clutch consists of two to four eggs. These vary a good deal in shape and size, some being pyriform, and others long and cylindrical; the texture is fine and with a high gloss. In colour they are a pure china-white ; the markings consist of well-defined black spots and specks more or less thinly sprinkled over the surface of the egg, chiefly at the large end. In some cases the spots are pale yellowish-brown or deep reddish-brown, often surrounded with a nimbus of the same colour.

The eggs measure about 1.10 by 0.8o inches.