4 Dr. H. H. Giglioli — The strange 



first-rate field-ornithologist, who skinned it, assured me that 

 it had pink eyes. 



But if the most striking peculiarity to the casual observer 

 in our A. chiaradice is the dark brown colour of the irides, 

 to an ornithologist other and, perhaps, more important 

 differences between it and A. noctua are obvious at a glance. 



My specimen, the type of A. chiaradice, is, as I have 

 already said, a male, hatched at the end of June or the 

 beginning of July ; it was, when I received it and had it 

 killed and mounted (1-4 xi. 1899), in its first autumnal plumage 

 with slight traces of the nestling garb. I should consider 



5* 



it all but fully grown. On comparing it with an adult male 

 of A. noctua (12 i. 1888), from the same subalpine region, 

 Pieve di Cadore (.V. 3086 Cat. Birds Ital. Coll. R. Zool. 

 Mus. Florence), careful measurements gave the following 

 results : — 



A. chiaradice. A. noctua. 



Total length m. 0-200 m. 0-220 



Wing „ 0-145 „ 105 



Tail „ 0-0G5 „ 0-075 



Tarsus „ 0025 „ 0035 



Upper mandible (height) „ 0-0085 „ 0-0075 



Of course a slight difference in age and the condition of the 

 feathers (in my A. chiaradice these were rather worn and 

 spoilt) may partially account for the difference I found in 

 the size of the two birds ; and 1 may here remark that my 

 friend Prof. G. Martorelli, who, as we shall see, carefully 

 studied and compared the second specimen of A. chiaradice 

 secured, a female, which was of about the same age as mine 

 (having been captured as a nestling 7 vii. 1901, and killed and 

 mounted 5 xi. 1901), found no appreciable difference in size 

 between it and specimens of A. noclua. And yet both this 

 and a subsequent compaiison I was able to make between 

 these two black-eyed Civette, the latter being yet alive, have 

 not done away with the impression that A. chiaradice is a 

 smaller bird than the average A. noctua. In the type 

 specimen of the former the skull is narrower and less 

 depressed than is usual in the common species. On dissection 



