Avifauna of Italy. 193 



stay during winter of this species in some parts of Italy. I 

 have since ascertained that it is abundant during that season 

 in Sardinia and some parts of the Maremma. I have seen it 

 myself flying in numbers at San Germano di Cassino, be- 

 tween Eome and Naples,, in January 1879. It is most com- 

 mon in the mountains of Corsica. 



Erythrosterna PARVA (Bcchst.) , 



Quite accidental. Our collection possesses a single spe- 

 cimen, received in exchange from the University Museum, 

 Genoa, which I have good reasons to believe to be the one 

 mentioned by Marquis Durazzo as having been captured near 

 that city in the spring of 1835. A second specimen, caught 

 also in that neighbourhood a year before, is in the Civic Mu- 

 seum at Genoa. 



Lanius meridionalis, Temm. 



Salvadori, in his excellent work on the Italian avifauna, 

 expresses considerable doubt as to the occurrence of this 

 species in Italy. Such a doubt can no longer be entertained ; 

 for the Florence collection of Italian vertebrates possesses no 

 less than four specimens of this Shrike, two of which I re- 

 ceived in the flesh. The first is a male, shot at Spoleto in 

 February 1875, the second a female, shot at Borgheri, in the 

 Maremma, on the 21st January 1878. The other two are 

 from the neighbourhood of Nice — a male, captured on the 

 28th of December 1876, and a female, shot in February 1877. 

 I have seen, besides, two other specimens, recently shot near 

 Genoa, and now in Marquis Dorians museum. 



Acredula irbyi, Sharpe & Dresser. 



This is^ beyond doubt, the prevalent and only species in 

 Central and Southern Italy, to the south of a line drawn across 

 the Tuscan Apennines ; I have also shot it in Corsica. It is a 

 most distinct species, and, so far as I know, does not occur 

 in Northern Italy. This would account for the apparent con- 

 fusion which Salvadori made between this and the following 

 species, and the statement of Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser that 

 some of the specimens sent to them from Piedmont by Count 

 Salvadori diflfered very little from the British Long-tailed 



