162 An Ornithological Letter from Mentone. 



congeners." In the specimen I have, it measures exactly 1| inch 

 in length, is very narrow, and slightly arched. 



I must now check my loquacity on this, my favourite topic, 

 and say a word, while I have yet time, about the Blue Rock- 

 Thrush, of lonely habit. Most people who have seen and 

 noticed this bird have heard repeated what Waterton says 

 when he claims that it is the representative of the Sparrow 

 of the Psalms ; and they have been probably gratified, as I 

 was, at the realization of this their childhood's type of deso- 

 lation. The French and the Italians, who are acquainted 

 with the bird, have each a name curiously correspondent with 

 the Bible appellation, — the lower orders in France calling it " Le 

 Mei'le ou Moineau Bleu,'' those speaking the patois of Savoy 

 " Passeraz Solistero Blu," and the Italians "Passera Solitaria" 

 — all three preserving the word signifying Sparrow. Many kinds 

 of berries, such as those of the arbutus, the juniper, the pretty 

 scarlet smilax, and perhaps an occasional fig, sufi'er the depre- 

 dations of all Thrushes, and of the Blue Rock-Thrush doubtless 

 among the rest ; but I fancy that his special taste is for spiders, 

 larvae, and things creeping innumerable, as the rocks where he 

 most of all delights to dwell are not the habitats of the fruits 

 above named. Perhaps the grasshoppers, with their gauzy pink, 

 blue, or green wings, may now and then fall victims to his appe- 

 tite ; and even the great brown locusts and thorny-armed green 

 Mantides may dread the " Solitary Sparrow." 



Having thus far given some general idea of the birds with which 

 I may now say that I am in daily intercourse, I should be un- 

 pardonable if I neglected, in conclusion, to express my regret at 

 the absence of certain most familiar friends of old home associa- 

 tion. The Rooks ai-e entirely absent. We have no Magpies ! no 

 Jackdaws ! no Crows ! no Choughs ! Indeed, during my last 

 winter here, the only members of the Corvine family that I either 

 saw or heard of were one pair of Ravens and one pair of Jays ! 



Yours, &c., 



J. Traherne Moggridge. 



