2 



daries brownish black, broadly tipped with white; tail forked, the outermost feathers 2"3 inches 

 longer than the centre ones, the outer rectrices white on the outer web nearly to the tip, and on the 

 inner web on the basal half, being otherwise blackish, remaining rectrices white on the basal, and 

 blackish brown on the terminal half, the central ones being slightly tipped with white ; upper tail- 

 coverts white ; lores and a streak passing under the eye and round the breast, forming a shield, black, 

 the inner part of this shield being yellowish buff; breast and flanks pale greyish brown; rest of the 

 underparts white, on the upper part of the abdomen clouded with yellowish buff; under wing-coverts 

 and axillaries rich fox-red ; bill black at the base of the lower mandible, and the basal edge of the 

 upper mandible rich red ; legs brownish black ; iris dark brown. Total length about 8| to 9 inches, 

 culmen 07, wing 7 - 5, tail 4 - 8, tarsus 1-25. 



Female. Undistinguishable in plumage from the male. 



Young (Seville, Spain, 29th August). Differs from the adult in having the feathers on the upper parts 

 edged with fulvous and black, and tipped with white ; the throat dirty yellowish ; the breast striped and 

 marked with blackish, the lower part of the breast washed with yellowish, and the tail-feathers bordered 

 at the tip with dirty white ; the outer feathers being much shorter than in the adult bird. 



The present species is found in Central and Southern Europe (straggling occasionally as far 

 north as Great Britain), Africa, and Asia, at least as far east as India. 



In Great Britain it is a rare bird ; but not a few instances of its occurrence are on record. 

 Mr. Halting, in his ' Handbook of British Birds,' enumerates twenty-one occurrences as follows : — 

 One at Boldness, Cumberland, 1807; one near Ormskirk, Lancashire, in 1807; one near Truro, 

 Cornwall, in September 1811; one at Unst, Shetland, 16th August, 1812; one Ende Waters, 

 Surrey, prior to 1821 ; two Breydon, Yarmouth, May 1827 ; one Branston Hall, near Lincoln, 

 15th August, 1827; one Wilbraham Fen, Cambridge, May 1835; one Castle Freke, co. Cork; 

 one Blakeney, Norfolk, May 1840; one Tilshead, Salisbury Plain, November 1852; one Staxten 

 Wold, Scarborough, May 1844; one Bedlington, Northumberland, February 1850; two seen at 

 Exmouth (fide Howe) ; and two seen on the Warren, Exmouth, 7th September, 1851 ; one 

 Stokes Bay, near Gosport, in October 1864; one Feltwell, Norfolk, June 1868; and one 

 Whitby, 19th October, 1871. The earliest occurrence was recorded by Mr. Bullock (Linn. 

 Trans, vol. xi. p. 177) as follows: — "The first instance of this bird having been killed in 

 Britain occurs in 1807, when one was shot in the neighbourhood of Ormskirk, in Lancashire; 

 it was preserved by Mr. J. Sherlock of that place, from whom I purchased it a few days after- 

 wards. On the 16th of August last I killed another specimen of this bird (now sent for the 

 inspection of the Society) in the Isle of Unst, about three miles from the northern extremity of 

 Britain. When I first discovered it, it rose within a few feet and flew round me in the manner 

 of a Swallow, and then alighted close to the head of a cow that was tethered within a few yards 

 distance. After examining it a few minutes I returned to the house of T. Edmondston, Esq., 

 for my gun, and, accompanied by that gentleman's brother, went in search of it. After a short 

 time it came out of some growing corn, and was catching insects at the time I fired ; and being 

 only wounded in the wing we had an opportunity of examining it alive. It ran with the 

 greatest rapidity, when on the ground or in shallow water, in pursuit of its food, which was 

 wholly of flies, of which its stomach was full. It was a male, and weighed 2 oz. 11 dvvts. None 



