266 AMMOMANES DESERTI, AMMOMANES ISABELLINA, 



wing it runs a short distance, and seldom far or high, preferring to trust 

 to swiftness of foot for safety." By the Avay, according to the latest 

 theory, this species should have lost the power of flight. Dr. A. L. Adams, 

 on the birds of Egypt and Nubia (Ibis, vol. vi. 18(54, p. 25), says of 

 Ammomanes pallida, " it runs at great speed, and, like the other Sand -Larks, 

 stops every few steps." 



The superstition of the Spanish Princess reminds us of the dirty hair shirt, 

 swarming with vermin, worn next to the skin by Thomas a Becket, under 

 his rich robes, and found after his death on his body, December 29, 1 170,— 

 a fact which vastly added to the sanctity of the Archbishop in the opinions 

 of that age, and raised such transports of enthusiasm that the monks 

 " kissed the hands and feet of the corpse, and called him by the name of 

 'Saint Thomas,' by which, from that time forward, he was so long known 

 to the world " (Stanley's Memorials of Canterhury, p. 97). 



The like want of cleanliness produced perhaps not so potent an 

 influence on the soldiers of the two Archdukes, as the Infanta and her 

 husband were always called ; men's feelings had changed, and this kind of 

 piety was out of date. Yet we see both science and religion alike affected 

 by two dirty articles of dress. 



The number of species of animals named after this Spanish lady, and 

 particularly of birds, rendered it necessary to relate a not very agreeable 

 anecdote. Mr. George Robert Gray, in his ' Hand-list of Genera and Species 

 of Birds,' part iii. Index, p. 251, mentions twenty-seven instances; and 

 the isabelline colour is spoken of, and so called, by the scientific in both the 

 Old and New Worlds. When, however, a Fellow of the Linnean Society 

 sends out a list of plants, and among them Phlox isahelUna, he perhaps 

 knows not the story of the Infanta. 



Throuo-h the kindness of Canon Tristram the two birds in the Plate 

 have been presented to my collection ; he shot them both himself. The male 



