The male bird is pure black, the eyes bordered with a fine golden yellow. The beak is also of this colour. Legs blackish. The female is dark-brown, chin whitish, breast a shabby brown with dark spots, beak and legs brown. The male does not attain his brilliant blackness until his third year. It builds its nest in bushes and thick foliage, where it is well hidden. It is composed chiefly of moss, fine twigs, and tufts of hair; and is strong and durable. The clutch consists of four to six eggs of pale green, speckled with pale rust-red and violet. [Illustration: An evening lyric.] [Illustration: USEFUL. THE GOLDEN ORIOLE.] THE ORIOLE. (_Oriolus galbula._) This bird is noisy in the spring and the early summer, its voice, which is full and deep like the note of the reed-pipe, fills the edge of the woods and the great gardens. “Next to the call of the Cuckoo, the flute-like note of the Oriole most enlivens the early summer woods and so contributes to the perfect harmony of a sunny spring-tide day; ‘_deelee-adid-leen_,’ or ‘_ditleo, deega, ditleeo_’ it sounds, always clear and joyous out of the bushy treetops.” In Hungary, it endeavours to lure away boys from too close proximity to the nest, by the cry, “_kell-cy dió, fiu?_” which means “Boys do you want some nuts?” Except at the fruit season, the Oriole is a very useful bird, and there is no kind of caterpillar that it will not pick up. In seasons when there are a great many cockchafers, it carries on a perfect war of extermination on these unhappy creatures. It is unfortunately true, however, that when the summer fruit is ripe--it departs for warmer regions before autumn--it troubles itself little about chafers, but turns its attention to cherries, apricots, morellas, and early pears. Still the good it does in destroying insects, is much greater than the harm it does otherwise, and therefore we will be indulgent to it. Besides, its lovely colour is a delight to the eye. * * * * * This Oriole comes annually to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles, but can only be called a visitor to our country, although nests have been found occasionally in some counties, especially in Kent. It is not unfrequently noticed in the Southern and Eastern counties of England.