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 tak