RED-WINGED STARLING. 227 



belong to wholly different families, which have little structural 

 affinity, and the Editor cannot but regret that the Author 

 having included the present member of the purely American 

 family Icteridce in this work its position must still be 

 retained here. It has been most properly refused admission 

 to the European list by all foreign ornithologists.* 



The male, killed in Norfolk, had the bill black : the irides 

 dark brown : the head, neck, scapulars and back, black ; the 

 feathers below the neck edged with reddish-brown ; the lesser 

 wing-coverts red, the middle orange-yellow, the greater black, 

 edged with brownish-bull" ; wings and tail black; the lower 

 part of the body black : legs, toes and claws, black. 



The specimen killed at Shepherd's Bush, being older, had 

 lost all the buff margins of the feathers of the back, scapu- 

 lars and greater wing-coverts ; the whole plumage, except the 

 red and yellow patch on the wing, being of an uniform glossy 

 black. 



The length of the male is about nine inches ; the wing 

 from the carpal joint nearly five inches. 



The female is much smaller, dark brown above, the feathers 

 edged with light brown ; a light stripe along the middle of 

 the head ; the lesser wing-coverts tinged with red ; wings 

 and tail blackish-brown, the feathers margined with brownish- 

 red ; a yellowish band over the eye ; beneath dull white 

 streaked with dark brown, except on the throat, which 

 together with the lores and sides of the neck, is tinged with 

 carmine. The young resemble the female, but have no red 

 tinge, and the throat is pale yellowish-brown. 



* Three examples of Sturnella ludoviciana, the "Meadow- Lark" of North 

 America, which belongs also to the Icteridce, are said to have been observed in 

 England — one seen by Capt. Jary in Norfolk in October. 1854 ; a second shot at 

 Thrandeston in Suffolk in March, I860, andnowin Mr. 11. 'I'. Prere's possession — 

 both recorded by Mr. Sclater (Ibis, 1861, p. 177»; and a third, killed near 

 Cheltenham many years ago, as mentioned by Mr. Harting (Handbook, p. 118) on 

 Mr. .'. W. Lloyd's authority. 



