154 



6 



we leave to the researches of field-naturalists to confirm or disprove ; but the ultimate results are 

 assuredly so, and a careful examination of the bird in the •wild state will show how they are effected, 

 and so the truth will ultimately be elucidated. 



Europe. 



Southern France. Mr. J. H. Gurncy, jun., has lent us a pair of P. cyanus from Nice. The female is in 

 spotted plumage, but shows plentiful traces of blue on the back and also on the flanks ; as the bird is in winter 

 plumage, the blue shade on the head and back is obscured by the dusky ash-colour which is assumed at this 

 season of the year. The male is nearly full-plumaged, being entirely blue with slight remains of whitish 

 markings on the middle of the back and belly ; a few remains of the dusky winter plumage are seen on the 

 head. Another male in breeding-dress, from Nice, was received by us from Herr W. Schluter, and formed 

 the subject of our description in the foregoing article. We may add that in all these three specimens the tail 



raduated, especially in the female, where there is a space of £ inch between the tips of the first and second 

 feathers, and of -^inch between those of the second and third, the fourth being slightly the longest. They 

 measure as follows: — Total length 8-8 inches, culmen 1 '0-1 •().">, wing 4-7-5-0, tail 3 - 3-3 5, tarsus 1*15. It 

 should be. noticed that, by a misprint, the tail of the male in our original article is said to be 4'4 inches in 

 length, instead of 3'4. 



Switzerland. Canon Tristram has lent us a specimen procured by himself at Geneva in 1844, a male 

 bird, very thickly escalloped on the under surface of the body with white edgings, these being less frequent 

 on the back : a good deal of brown shading pervades the head. Two more specimens, sent us by Mr. Schluter, 

 are unfortunately, like Or. Tristram's bird, undated. One of them, however, is in very interesting dress, having 

 evidently been shot in the spring, when it is gaining the full blue breeding-plumage. The gradual disappear- 

 of the ashy-brown margins to the feathers is well illustrated in this specimen. The measurements of 

 these three Swiss examples are as follows: — Total length 8-1—9-0 inches, culmen O95-T0, wing 4'6-495, 

 tail 3-25 36, tarsus M-W5. 



Italy. Our friend Count Salvadori has sent us a male, procured by himself in Piedmont, which much 

 resembles the above-mentioned Swiss specimen. Other birds received from Mr. Schluter are passing from the 

 winter plumage into the spring dress, and they all prove clearly that the gradual disappearance of the white 

 edgings to the feathers occurs in the young male on his assuming the breeding-dress. At this latter season 

 the plumage of the head and chest obtains a silvery-blue lustre, which renders the bird rather brilliantly 

 coloured, in comparison with the dingy appearance which the winter garb imparts to it. In addition to these 



mples, Mr. Howard Saunders has lent us a Genoese specimen in his collection, which is likewise just 

 emerging from the winter dress, of which plentiful remains are seen; the cross markings on the back and on 



breast are very obscure, indeed nearly obsolete. By far the most interesting specimen that we have yet 

 examined of the Blue Rock-Thrush has been submitted to us by Mr. A. Basil Brooke, who obtained it at 

 Bordighera, in the Riviera, in March 1869. It is evidently an old female emerging from the mottled plumage 

 into the full blue dress. Traces of the ashy-brown shade of the winter plumage are visible on the upper 

 surface of the body, which is otherwise entirely blue, with a few remains of obsolete white cross markings on 

 the wing- and tail-coverts as well as the lower back and rump. On the under surface the mottled plumage is 

 still tpj arent ; but a blue shade is coming on the chin, sides of the neck, and has almost taken possession of the 



"i' the lower surface of the body, especially the under wing-coverts. This bird clcarlyshows the passage of 

 the adult female from the mottled to the blue dress. Considerable variation as to the graduation of the tail is 

 seen in these specimens; for though in most of them it is nearly square, the Bordighera female has it very 

 conspicuously graduated. Total length 8 -2-90 inches, culmen 1-0-1 -05, wing 4-6-1-9, tail 3-3-3-5, tarsus 1*15. 



Sardinia. To the kindness of ( 'ount Salvadori we owe a specimen collected by himself in Sardinia on the 



17th oi January 1863. The bird is a male, and is already beginning to show signs of the approaching spring 



by the appearance of silvery blue on the head and chest. Only the very faintest trace of white edgings 



