Avifauna of Italy. 205 



received in excliange from Signor de Betta. A specimen shot 

 in Cadore in 1846 is in the Doglioni collection at Belluno. 



Sturnus unicolor, La Marm. 



Only found in Sardinia and Sicily, and sedentary; I know 

 of no instance of the capture of this species on the continent. 

 I did not see any in Corsica ; neither did Mr. Wharton, who 

 has published in this Journal an interesting list of the birds 

 of that island. 



Pastor roseus (Linn.). 



We possess a fine series of this species, which appears to 

 breed in Italy oftener than is generally known. I have in 

 the series a young male shot at Marraddi in the Tuscan 

 Apennines in January 1874, which has nearly assumed the 

 adult plumage and is curiously patched ; another, in complete 

 immature garb, was caught near Florence on the 12th of 

 October 1879. Early in June 1875 hundreds arrived at 

 Villafranca, near Verona, following in the wake of a column 

 of locusts ; they took possession of the castle, ejecting the 

 Starlings, Swifts, and Owls, and settling in their holes, which 

 they left towards the middle of July, after rearing their 

 young. 



CoRVus coRONE, Linn. 



A scarce bird in Central and Southern Italy, but not so in 

 Piedmont ; our collection has a specimen, a male, shot at 

 Calcinaia, near Greve, Tuscany, in October 1874. Our 

 collection possesses also a specimen of C comix with the 

 grey of the back and abdomen nearly entirely black ; I con- 

 sider it a melanism rather than a hybrid between the two 

 allied species. I should hardly have thought that C. corone 

 would breed so far south as Corsica; but Mr. C. B. Wharton 

 tells us he saw one building its nest in that island {' Ibis,' 

 1876, p. 24) . 



Pterocles alchata (Linn.). 



This species is of accidental occurrence in Italy ; our col- 

 lection possesses a fine male shot near Nice on the 17th of 

 May 1872. Birds appear to have been cauglit also in Sicily, 



