466 MIGRATION OF VARIOUS BIRDS AND INSECTS. 



but carelessly examined by scrupulous systematists, who have confounded 

 them v/ith blackbirds and thrushes, birds totally different in their habits, 

 which ally them more closely to starlings and martins, whose manners 

 and kind of living they in reality adopt. 



This bird is drawn from the superb collection of M. Ray de 

 Breukelerwaard, and I never observed it in any other place. It is 

 reported to be found in the South Sea Islands. Its bulk is nearly 

 equal to that of our common blackbird ; but its tail, which is exceed- 

 ingly long and wedge-shaped, is half as long again as the bird's body, 

 and has only eight quills. Such a character, to the best of my know- 

 ledge, is not found in any other bird, and led me to suspect that two of 

 its tail-feathers had fallen off: but after a most scrupulous examination, 

 I felt convinced that their number was complete, and that the indi- 

 vidual never had more. All the under part of its body, head and 

 scapulars, as well as the breast, are of a shining black, over which, 

 in particular situations of light, bluish tints appear. Two of the 

 medial feathers, situated in the middle of the wing, have their outer 

 barbs of deep red, and the rest are absolutely black, as well as those of 

 the tail. The feathers which clothe the sides, the belly, and the 

 thighs, are of the same clear red as that of our huppe : the lower tail- 

 coverts are of this same tint, but have also some blackish-brown shades. 

 The bill, legs, and claws are of a deep black. 



NEW FACTS ON THE MIGRATION OF VARIOUS BIRDS AND 



INSECTS. 



BY EDWARD BLYTH. 



THE following very interesting intelligence has been communicated 

 to me by a neighbour, an excellent observer of nature, who has just 

 arrived by sea on, board a trading smack, from the vicinity of Aber- 

 deen. 



On the voyage from London, northward, on the 16th of September, 

 when off the coast of Yorkshire, and about ten or twelve miles from 

 Redcliff, several small birds alighted on the vessel. They were of va- 

 rious species; tree-pipits (Anlhus arboreus), willow-wrens (Sylvia 



