SKETCHES OP EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 99 



can exceed, in accuracy of outline, and splendour and softness of 

 colouring, the two figures here delineated by Mr. Gould. 



Plate IV. — Of the subject of this plate, the Hooded Merganser, 

 — Mergus cucullatus, — one specimen only, either a young female, 

 or, in Mr. Gould's opinion, more probably an immature male, has 

 yet been taken in the British islands. It was killed in Norfolk, in 

 1829 ; and first described by Selby in the Transactions of the Na- 

 tural History Society of Northumberland ^ and subsequently in the 

 second volume of his Illustrations of British Ornithology ; to which, 

 and to Richardson's Fauna Americana Borealis, the reader is refer- 

 red for a more particular description of the Bird. The head of the 

 male exhibits a crest composed of two separate rows of feathers radi-* 

 ating from each side, and easily divisible by the hand. That of the 

 female is furnished with a " small crest of slight hair-like feathers, 

 of a dull ferrugineous brown." This bird, — le Harle couronne, of 

 Buffon, but not described by Temminck, — is a native of the northern 

 regions of America and Europe ; and strikingly resembles, in its 

 characters and habits, the other species of the Mergus genus. The 

 two figures, male and female, of Mr. Gould are executed with mar- 

 vellous spirit and fidelity. 



Plate V. — The beautiful Bee-eater, — Merops apiaster, Lin- 

 naeus, — chrysocephalus, Latham, — Guepier vulgaire, Fr.^ — Bien- 

 fresser, G., — forms the subject of this exquisitely-coloured plate. 

 It is the only European species of the genus ; inhabits the southern 

 regions of Germany, Switzerland and France, Spain, Sicily, the 

 Archipelago, and Turkey ; and migrates, in Autumn, towards 

 Egypt. It is merely an occasional visitant of the British islands. 

 Why our Derbyshire correspondent should have applied to this in- 

 sectivorous bird the specific designation glandarius, we are utterly 

 at a loss to comprehend. Surely Merops Jlavicollis would constitute 

 a more correct and, at the same time, characteristic synonym than 

 glandarius, of the " Yellow -throated Bee-eater." 



Plate VI. — On the expediency of separating the Wheat-ear, 

 — Saxicola (Enanthe, of Bechstein, — Traquet Moteux, jPr., — Culbi- 

 anco, It.y — Grauriickiger Steinschmatzer, G., — from the two other 

 British species with which it has been commonly associated, and 

 transferring it, as Ray and Brisson have done, to the genus Vitta- 

 flora, we are exceedingly sceptical. What, we would beg leave to 

 inquire, are the peculiarities of structure which call for, or justify, 

 this innovation ? The pPopri€ty of its removal from the Motacillce 

 and Sylvian, with which it was respectively arranged by Linnaeus, 

 and Latham, no enlightened Ornithologist will, for a moment, qu€s- 



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