GREAT OBEY SHBIKE. 21 



the figure given by Swainson in the "Fauna," as above quoted. The 

 white mark above the eye is not mentioned in the second edition of 

 the "Manual," but it is in the third. Temminck gives the length of 

 L. meridionalis nine inches, Degland ten. Swainson is most accurate 

 in his dimensions, and gives the length of his bird nine inches and a 

 half. 



Wilson also says of L. Carolinensis that it inhabits the warmer 

 parts only of the United States, as the rice plantations of Georgia 

 and Carolina, and in the observations above it will be seen that 

 Temminck says L. meridionalis only inhabits the countries of the 

 South of Europe. 



Adult male. The head, nape, mantle, and back of a very dark 

 ash-colour; a large black band below the eyes, covering the orifice 

 of the ears; throat of a vinous white. All the lower parts of a 

 rather vinous ash-colour, of which the tints are shaded upon the 

 flanks and thighs into a more pure and darker ash-colour. Origin 

 of primaries and tip of secondai'ies of a pure white; four middle 

 quills of the tail quite black, the others as in excubitor. 



Adult female. Upper part of the body of a dark ash-colour, but 

 always less pure than that of the male; the under parts more shaded 

 with ash-colour, and variegated with dark crescentic marks, which 

 terminate all the feathers. The dark band under the eyes not so 

 decidedly black. 



The figures of the bird and e^^ are from specimens in my own 

 collection, which I received from Mr. Savile Heid. I have other eggs 

 taken by "E. Fairmaine^" and sent to me by the late Herr Seidensacher. 

 Mr. Reid's specimens were taken at Gibraltar. 



