262 



Merida boulboul. 



By WESr<KY T. Page, F.Z.S., &c. 



T T This bird is also known as the Grey-Winged 

 I Blackbird. He has a fine carriage, in fact is 

 •"^ what a keeper of Game Fowls wonld call a 

 " reacliy " bird ; he is full of character, fearless and 

 confiding. These are traits which always make a 

 ptjfect cage or aviary bird, and this Onzel certainly 

 merits that title. 



He will, as a rnle, keep without question the 

 position of lord of the aviary ; yet there is nothing of 

 the bully about him, (I know only the male from 

 personal experience, and so far only one individual), 

 for I have found him quite harmless in a mixed 

 collection of birds, ranging from the smallest Waxbill 

 to Cardinals, Cockateels, etc. It is most amusing to 

 see him put the male Cockateel to the riglit about, if 

 he considers him assuming too much. 



Plumage: The whole of the plumage of the male 

 is a rich black, excepting the median and greater 

 coverts, tertiaries, and tlie outer webs of the secon- 

 daries, which are ash-grey with a silvery sheen ; the 

 black is duller on the under parts, and the outer edges 

 of the feathers are greyish, imparting a sort of un- 

 dulated or scaled appearance to the whole of the 

 plumage of the under parts ; the upper parts are 

 really marked in the same way, but the grey is darker, 

 and the scalings are only noticeable under close obser- 

 vation ; the legs and feet are brownish yellow ; bill, 

 orange-yellow; iris, rich dark brown, and the edges of 

 the eyelids are orange-yellow, almost chrome. 



The female is darkish ashy- brown over the whole 

 of the plumage, with the exception of the wing coverts, 

 tertiaries, and secondaries, which are pale rufous; iris, 

 reddish ; legs, greyish-red, or rather perhaps a cold 



