THE BLACK-THROATED OUZEL. 251 



been obtained by Herr Tancre's collectors on the Altai Mountains. They 

 exhibit the same variation in colour as the eggs of the Blackbird, and 

 measure from 1*2 to T15 inch in length, and from'Sto '75 inch in breadth. 

 The young in nestling- plumage which I brought from the valley of the 

 Yenesay are very like the young of the Fieldfare, although the chestnut 

 wing-liuing and axillaries distinguish them at a glance, as also from the 

 young of another closely allied Asiatic bird, of which I had the good 

 fortune to obtain both eggs and young, the Dark Ouzel (Merula obscurd). 



The autumn plumage of the Black-throated Ouzel is olive-brown above, 

 darkest on the wings and tail ; below, the throat and breast are black, with 

 pale margins to the feathers, and the sides and flanks are greyish brown, 

 becoming pure white on the belly. The wing-lining and axillaries are rich 

 chestnut. During winter and spring the edges to the feathers are cast; 

 and the nuptial plumage displays the throat and breast pure black, the 

 white of the underparts more distinct, and the whole colour of the upper 

 parts much paler. Bill dark brown above, pale below ; legs and feet pale 

 brown ; irides dark brown. Females want the black on the throat and 

 breast, the feathers having dark centres, except on the lower throat, which 

 is uniform creamy white. Males of the year are like old females. 



The nearest relation of the Black-throated Ouzel is undoubtedly the 

 Red-throated Ouzel (Merula ruficollis). So nearly allied are these species 

 that there seems every reason to believe that they interbreed. In the 

 Berlin Museum is a complete series of intermediate forms, from one to the 

 other, including both extremes, all collected by Dybowsky on the southern 

 shores of Lake Baikal in April and May. 



The Gold-vented Bulbul (Pt/cnonotm capensis) has no claim whatever to be considered 

 a British bird, or even an accidental visitor to Europe. It has been included in the list in 

 consequence of a single alleged occurrence more than forty years age : this bird may have 

 escaped from a cage, or it may bave been accidentally changed for a foreign skin. The only 

 example on which its claim? to the British fauna rest is a specimen alleged to have been 

 shot near Waterford, and which was in the collection of Dr. Robex-t Burkitt. In the same 

 collection is also an example of Bubo capensis, which is represented to have been shot in 

 Ireland and which is labelled Bubo maximus a circumstance which throws great doubt on 

 the accuracy of the localities of the birds in this collection, and suggests the idea that the 

 specimen of the Gold-vented Bulbul was also a South- African skin. The true home of the 

 Gold-vented Bulbul is South Africa, where it seems to be exclusively confined to the 

 Cape Colony. 



It is a common mistake, into which many ornithologists,- and amongst them Professor 

 Newton in his edition of Yarrell's ' British Birds,' have fallen, to suppose that the Bulbuls 

 of modern naturalists belong to the same group as the Bulbul so celebrated in eastern 

 song. The latter is the Persian Nightingale, Erithacus gohii. None of the birds which 

 ornithologists call Bulbuls have any great powers of song, unless it be the Palestine Bulbul, 

 Pycnonotw .ranthopygu*, which, in Canon Tristram's opinion, almost equals the Nightingale 

 in power of voice. 



The general colour of the Gold-vented Bulbul is brown, a little darker on the head, 

 wings, and tan ; it is almost white on the centre of the belly, and has the under tail- 

 coverts bright yellow. 



