es 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.

521. Oriolus melanocephalus(Linn.). _The Indian Black-headed
Oriole_.

Oriolus melanocephalus, _Linn., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 110;
_Hume, Rough Draft N. & E_ no. 472.
Oriolus ceylonensis, _Bonap., Jerd. B. Ind._ ii, p. 111.

I have already noticed ('Stray Feathers,' vol. i, p. 439) how
impossible it is to draw any hard-and-fast line, in practice, between
this the so-called "Bengal Black-headed Oriole" and the supposed
distinct southern species, _O. ceylonensis_, Bp.

The present species certainly breeds in suitable (i.e. well-wooded
and not too bare or arid) localities throughout Northern and Central
India, Assam, and Burma, and I have specimens from Mahableshwar,
from the Nilgiris, and even Anjango, that are nearer to typical _O.
melanocephalus_ than to typical _O. ceylonensis_. Of its nidification
southwards I know nothing. I have only myself taken its eggs in the
neighbourhood of Calcutta.

It appears to lay from April to the end of August. The nest of this
species, though perhaps slightly deeper, is very much like that of _O.
kundoo_; it is a deep cup, carefully suspended between two twigs, and
is composed chiefly of tow-like vegetable fibres, thin slips of bark
and the like, and is internally lined with very fine tamarisk twigs or
fine grass, and is externally generally more or less covered over with
odds and ends, bits of lichen, thin flakes of bark, &c. It is slightly
smaller than the average run of the nests of _O. kundoo_. The
egg-cavity measures about 3 inches in diameter and nearly 2 inches in
depth. I myself have never found more than three eggs, but I dare