OBIOLTJS. 359

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

Mr. 0. J. W. Taylor, speaking of Manzeerabad in Mysore, says : —
" Abundant in the plains. Bare 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 iu 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 trauslucency 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 unfiequently 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 I'll
by 0-81.

521. Oriolus melaiioceplialus (Linn.)- The Indian Black-
headed Oriole.

Oriolus melanocephalus, Linn., Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 110 ; Hume,

Rough Draft N. $ K no. 472.
Oriolus ceylonensis, Ztonap., 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, 0. 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 e\en Anjaugo, that are