354 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hot, sultry afternoon, in a dolce far niente sort of a way, to the foot of 

 Monte Caprino, which bounds the lake of Lugauo on the opposite side to 

 the town itself, and there I was introduced to my bird-guide that was to be. 

 He, however, not knowing the birds by their French names, and I not 

 knowing them by their local Italian ones — the limit of his ornithological 

 knowledge — we found a difficulty in coming to a conclusion as to the 

 species required, until I took my paints and made a rough sketch of 

 the two kinds. " Ah," he said, pointing to the Blue Thrush's portrait, 

 " Passera Solitaria e Collossera," he added, dabbing rapidly with his finger 

 at my scribble intended to represent the Rock Thrush. " Collossera" is, 

 I presume, a local corruption of " Codirossone," which Messrs. Sharpe and 

 Dresser give as the Italian name for this bird. [The best lists of 

 Italian provincial names of birds will be found in Professor Giglioli's 

 ' Avifauna Italica.' — Ed. J So he told me that he could easily procure 

 me a brood of this kind ; but the Passera Solitaria, that was quite 

 another thing, for they build much higher up, and in the face of the 

 precipices, where the nest is most difficult of access ; but he would 

 try his best. And so he did ; for on rowing across, a few days later, I was 

 delighted to find that a brood of Rock Thrushes had been discovered ; so off 

 we set to look at the nest, which we came to after a good deal of toiling up 

 the dry bed of a torrent, and some stumbling over the loose boulders and 

 stones, with steep banks on each side thickly covered with shrubs, grass, 

 and trees. Then came a warming scramble up one of these banks, with the 

 brown Lizards darting away at every step, then a final hoist up until 

 I could just cling on to the tufts of grass and see into the nest, which was 

 very much like a Blackbird's, but built in the side of the bank, where the 

 ground had been hollowed away, apparently by the old birds, who on this 

 occasion did not put in an appearance. In the nest there were three young 

 birds of about a week or nine days old, and one pale blue egg, minus spots 

 of any kind. As I wanted more than one bird I took the nest as it was, 

 and triumphantly carried it, with its contents, back to Lugano. They 

 prospered beyond all hope, and are now three fine young birds, fast donning 

 their winter plumage, two males and one female, as far as one can judge. 

 My bird-hunter found me a nest of the Blue Thrush, but in a quite 

 inaccessible spot — viz. in the face of a huge rock rising precipitously out of 

 the lake ; about 100 feet up there was a small hole, and as we sat in the boat 

 below, a Cuckoo flew quite close past this hole, when immediately a Blue 

 Thrush darted out, chasing the intruder along the face of the rock until both 

 pursuer and pursued disappeared over the top, which little occurrence 

 convinced me that my guide was right as to the whereabouts of the nest of 

 the Passera Solitaria, and it is in these sort of places that this bird usually 

 builds. In the neighbourhood of the Italian lakes it is thought much of as 

 a cage-bird and a songster, whilst the Hock Thrush is rather ignored, and 



