PASTOR ROSEUS O 



chatterer, particularly during the breeding season, and, like its 

 relative, whistles not unpleasantly. The diet of this, like that of 

 other Starlings, consists mainly of worms, grubs, and insects of 

 different kinds, but there is no doubt these birds occasionally feed 

 on grain, berries, and other vegetable matter, and they may, indeed, 

 be considered omnivorous, as they also devour eggs, and at times 

 even young birds. 



PASTOR ROSEUS (Liuuifius). 



EOSE-COLOURED PASTOE. 



Turdus roseus, Linn. Syst. Nat., i, p. 294 (1766). 



Pastor roseus, Temia. Man. d'Orn. i, p. 136 (1820); Sharpc, Cat. Birds 



Brit. Mas. xiii, p. 63; Malherbe, Cat. Rais. d'Ois. Ahj. p. 9 (1846); 



Lochc, Expl. Sci. Alg. Ois. i, p. 127 (1867) ; Koenig, J.f. 0. 1888, p. 



170 ; id. J. f. 0. 1892, p. 370. 



Description. — Adult male, spring, from Italy. 



Entire head, nape, neck, upper breast, wings, tail, upper and under tail- 

 coverts, axillaries aud thighs glossy black, the head, nape, neck and breast 

 with violet reflections, and the wing-coverts aud tail with green reflections, 

 rest of plumage delicate pale rose. 



Iris hazel ; bill rose-colour ; feet brown. 



Total length 7'50 inches, wing 5, culmen •95, tarsus 1'30. 



Adult female duller in colour than the male. 



Young birds resemble the young of the common Starling, but are rather 

 paler. 



In winter the plumage is much duller and browner, most of the feathers 

 at that season being margined with brown. 



This exquisitely plumaged bird occurs occasionally in Tunisia as 

 an irregular visitor or wanderer, so irregular, indeed, that years together 

 may elapse without its appearance being recorded in the country. 

 The only instance of its occurrence in the Regency that has come 

 under my notice is that of a specimen which was obtained near tlie 

 town of Tunis in the spring of 1903, and brought, in the flesh, to the 

 naturalist Blanc, to be preserved and set up. I endeavoured to obtain 

 it for my collection, but the owner would not part with the bird. 



