"At Lucknow," writes Mr. R.M. Adam, "I found this species on the 20th May building a nest in a neem-tree, and on the 24th I took two eggs from the nest. On the 10th June I saw another pair, only making love, so they probably did not lay till the end of that month."
Dr. Jerdon notes that he "procured a nest at Saugor from a high branch of a banian tree in cantonments. It was situated between the forks of a branch, made of fine roots and grass, with some hair and a feather or two internally, and suspended by a long roll of cloth about three quarters of an inch wide, which it must have pilfered from a neighbouring verandah where a tailor worked. This strip was wound round each limb of the fork, then passed round the nest beneath, fixed to the other limb, and again brought round the nest to the opposite side; there were four or five of these supports on either side. It was indeed a most curious nest, and so securely fixed that it could not have been removed till the supporting bands had been cut or rotted away. The eggs were white, with a few dark claret-coloured spots."
Major Wardlaw Ramsay says, writing from Afghanistan:—"At Shalofyan, in the Kurrum valley, in June, I found them in great numbers: some were breeding; but as I saw quite young birds, it is probable that the nesting-season was nearly over."
Colonel Butler contributes the following note:—"The Indian Oriole breeds in the neighbourhood of Deesa in the months of May, June, and July. I took nests on the following dates:—
"24th May, 1876. A nest containing 1 fresh egg. 29th " " " " 3 fresh eggs. 12th June " " " 2 much incubated eggs. 12th " " " " 3 fresh eggs. 13th " " " " 2 " 19th " " " " 3 " 29th " " " " 2 " 29th " " " " 2 " 29th " " " " 3 " 3rd July " " " 2 " 6th " " " " 3 " 30th " " " " 2 "
"The nest found on the 24th May was suspended from a small fork of a neem-tree about ten feet from the ground, and was very neatly built of dry grass (fine interiorly, coarse exteriorly), old rags, and cotton (woven, not raw). The rim was firmly bound to the branches of the fork with rags and coarse blades of dry grass. It is an easy nest to find when the birds are building, as both birds are always together and keep constantly flying to and from the nest with materials for building. The cock, as before mentioned, always accompanies the hen to and from the nest whilst she is building; but I do not think he assists in its construction, as I never saw him carrying any of the materials, neither have I ever seen him on the nest. On the contrary, whilst the hen is at the nest building he is generally waiting for her, either on the same tree or else on another close by, occasionally uttering his well-known rich mellow note. On the 29th May I sent a boy up a tree to examine a nest. The hen bird had been sitting for a week, and was on the nest when the boy ascended the tree. The cock bird flew past, and being a brilliant specimen I shot him, thinking of course that the nest contained a full complement of eggs. To my astonishment, however, though the hen bird sat very close, there were no eggs in the nest, and although she returned to it once or twice afterwards, she eventually forsook it without laying. Possibly she may have laid, and that the eggs were destroyed by Crows. In addition to the materials already mentioned, this nest was also composed of tow, string, and strips of paper, all neatly woven into the exterior, and many of the other nests mentioned were exactly similar; sometimes I have found pieces of snake-skin woven into the exterior.
"On the 9th of July I observed a pair of Orioles building on a neem-tree in one of the compounds in Deesa. When the nest was nearly finished a gale of wind rose one night and scattered it all over the bough it was fixed to. The birds at once commenced to remove it, and in a couple of days carried off: every particle of it to another tree about 100 yards off, upon which they built a new nest of the materials they had removed from the other tree. I ascended the tree on the 17th of July, and found it contained three fresh eggs.
"The eggs are pure white, sparingly spotted with moderately-sized blackish-looking spots, if washed the spots run. They vary a good deal in shape and size, some being very perfect ovals, others greatly elongated, &c."
Major C.T. Bingham writes:—"The Indian Oriole builds at Allahabad and at Delhi from the beginning of April to the end of July. In the cold weather this bird seems to migrate more or less, as but few are seen and none heard during that season. The nests are built generally at the top of mango-trees and well concealed; they are constructed of fine grass, beautifully soft, mixed with strips of plaintain-bark, with which, or with strips of cotton cloth purloined from somewhere, the nest is usually bound to a fork in the branch. The egg-cavity is pretty deep, that is to say from 1½ to 3 inches."
Mr. George Reid records the following 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:—