(Philippine Oriole.)

Le Lortot de la Cochinchine, Brisson, Ornithologie, ii. p. 326, pl. 33, fig. 1 C1760).

Oriolus ane, Linn. S. N. i. p. 160 (1766, ex Briss.).—Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 232 (1845).—Blyth, Journ.
Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xv. p. 46 (1845).—Id. Cat. Birds Mus. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, p. 215 (1849).—
Horsfield & Moore, Cat. Birds Mus. East-India Co. i. p. 270 (1854).—Gray, Hand-list of Birds, i.
p- 292 (1869).—Sharpe, Catalogue of Birds, iii. p. 203 (1877).—Id. Transactions of the Linnean
Society, 2nd series, Zool. vol. i. (1877).

Le Couliavan de la Cochinchine, D’Aubent. Pl. Enl. 570.

Oriolus acrorhynchus, Vigors, P. Z.S. 1831, p. 97.—Gray & Mitchell, Gen. B. i. p. 232, pl. 58 (1845).—
Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 348 (1850).—Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Coraces, p. 104 (pt. 1867).
—Walden & Layard, Ibis, 1872, p. 101.—Hume, Stray Feathers, 1875, p. 132.

Oriolus cochinchinensis, Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av. i. p. 348 (1850).

Broderipus acrorhynchus, Walden, Transactions of the Zoological Society, ix. p. 185 (1875).

 

Tus is byno means a common species in collections ; and yet it is one of the first Orioles known to science,
having been described by Brisson more than one hundred years ago. From the account of the latter
author, there can be no doubt that the species described by him as coming from China was in reality the
Philippine bird; and although I follow in this instance the nomenclature adopted by Mr. Sharpe, I confess
that I attach with regret the name chinensis to a bird which we now know positively never to occur in
China. This is the more to be deplored, as there actually exists in China an Oriole belonging to the
- same black-naped section of the genus as the present bird.

When the Marquis of Tweeddale published his paper on the birds of the Philippine archipelago, the
species was known to occur in the islands of Luzon, Guimaras, Negros, and Zebu, from all of which
Dr. Meyer had obtained specimens. Dr. Steere, further, procured it in Mindanao and Balabac. Lord Tweed-
dale gives an interesting account of the plumages in this species, which I transcribe entire :—‘‘ A large series
of individuals obtained by Dr. Meyer illustrates the varying relative proportion of yellow and black on the
head in different examples of this fine Oriole. Ina Luzon female, immature, the middle rectrices are tinged
with green ; the enclosed yellow frontal space extends fully for seven-eighths of an inch from the base of the
adult Guimaras male with jet-black middle rectrices and quills, and rich orange-
is yellow, occupying a depth of only two-eighths of an inch. This
example, in the distribution and proportions of its black and yellow plumage, is almost absolutely identical
with a Sula-Island specimen of B. frontals (Wallace). The Sula example, however, has the middle pair
of rectrices entirely black, whereas all the Philippe examples have those feathers more or less tipped with
yellow 5 oreusee te Philippine is a much larger bird, with a longer wing and ut The exxent of yellow
at the termination of the middle pair of rectrices varies very considerably. In a Negros male in full golden-
orange plumage the tips of the middle pair are but barely fringed with le Ina mas male in similar
dress the two middle rectrices have a yellow terminal band nearly half an inch in depth. |

Adult.—Above bright golden yellow ; lores, feathers round the eye, hinder crown, and nape black, forming
4 broad horseshoe ; sides of face, neck, and entire under surface of body bright ao like the back: wing-
coverts bright golden yellow ; bastard wing, primary-coverts, and quills black, with des 2 sien . .
tip of the outer web of the inner secondaries, increasing on the innermost, where it Bele ae :
tail black, broadly tipped with bright yellow, this occupying the terminal third o the
outermost rectrix and gradually decreasing towards the centre of the the ne ay po

: . acre sore / or), ‘ n
merely tipped with yellow ; “bill pink-rose-coloured 5 feet and a Z Z ey” (Meye : 8
11°5 inches, culmen 1°45, wing 6-2, tail 4°35, tarsus 1-1 (Sharpes at. b. ee ean
- Male.—Differs from the adult in being greener on the back, the quills and tail- eathers rown
ail-feathers olive-greenish, the rest greenish at the base, the tps broadly
head dull yellow, with a horseshoe mark on the hinder part of
sides of face and under surface of body bright yellow, with a

Total length 10°2 inches, culmen 1°30, wing

culmen. In a perfectly
golden dorsal plumage, the forehead only

entire outer web ;

Young
‘nstead of black ; two centre t
yellow, with a subterminal blackish shade ;
the crown dusky black streaked with yellow ;
few narrow streaks of black on the chest.
tarsus 1 (Sharpe, Cat. EB 2 c.).

P \ in in my own collection, 0 the size of life.
ate 1s draw from la skin i f

a beautiful Mani

The figure