GOLD-VENTED THRUSH. 235 



Waterford, by a lad while out shooting Blackbirds; he 

 considered it a hen Blackbird, and sold it to Dr. Robert 

 Burkitt of Waterford, who skinned and preserved it ; the 

 sex, however, was not noted. In 1843 Dr. Burkitt sent 

 the specimen to Win. Thompson, Esq., for exhibition in 

 the Natural History Section of the British Association, 

 then about to hold a meeting at Cork, and the subject is 

 noted in the Published Report of the thirteenth meeting, 

 in that part of the volume devoted to the Transactions of 

 the Sections, page 71. 



Dr. Burkitt has most kindly allowed me the use of his 

 bird for my work on the present occasion, and the figure 

 at the head of this subject, and the description to be added, 

 were taken from this British killed specimen. 



But little is known of the habits of this species by the 

 various authors whose names and works are here quoted. 

 By Le Vaillant, who has given a coloured representation 

 of the male, it is stated that Klaas, the faithful companion 

 of his travels, shot this species on the banks of the Groot- 

 vis river, in the Caffre country. This example, which was 

 found to be a male, was accompanied by another of the 

 same species, but Le Vaillant's fellow-traveller having only 

 a single-barrelled gun, the other bird, which was probably 

 a female, escaped while he was reloading. They afterwards 

 saw no more birds of this species, not even the female in 

 question, although they searched the district in which the 

 male was killed for several days. 



Dr. Latham, in the fifth volume of his General History, 

 when noticing this species, ^observes, that in the collection 

 of Sir J. Anstruther are several drawings of this bird, 

 where it is called the Bulbul (Nightingale) of Calcutta ; 

 but the bird thus referred to by Dr. Latham, which is 

 figured in Brown's Illustrations of Zoology, plate 31, 

 though somewhat resembling Le Vaillant's bird, is yet a 



