10 
M. intermedia. 
Males. Females. 
Marketan e а e 5:45 BOD 
EI ee 5:25-5:5 5:35-5:55 
Аа a qu са Ж 5:5 52 
DAI ss о Das је 5:15-5:8 4:95-5:0 
It will thus be seen that the measurements of the European and Central-Asian Blackbirds 
overlap, and the grey-plumaged female of the latter is matched by specimens from Tunis and 
Palestine (M. syriaca). 
A curious specimen with a claw on the wing is figured іп Dresser's * Birds of Europe. It is the 
type of the species called Merula dactyloptera, which was supposed to have come from Syria. 
Count Salvadori has, however (Ibis, 1884, p. 214), discovered a MS. note of the late. Marquis 
Antinori to the effect that the specimen in question was obtained by himself, not in Syria, but near 
Smyrna in Asia Minor! Не sent it home with the name of Merula unguiculata attached to it, but 
he did not consider it to be anything but an abnormal variety of the Common Blackbird. 
Count Arrigoni degli Oddi has written some interesting papers on peculiar varieties of the 
Blackbird found in Italy, wherein white bands are developed on the wings and tails of the birds. 
He has very kindly sent me the following synopsis of his facts recorded on the subject :— 
* I have observed that, independently of locality, there is found in Italy a variety of Merula 
merula, which, especially in the young ones, has the tail and sometimes the wings banded 
symmetrically with whitish. This anomaly usually disappears in the first year of the bird's life, 
but it lasts longer when it is observed in the adult ones. I have called it urofasciatura and 
uropterofasciatura (i. e. tail-banded and tail-wing-banded). 
“The uropterofasciatura presents itself on the wings and tail, and in some cases it is 
probably a form of albinism and also a modification of the latter, if we admit that the feathers remain 
unchanged. It is sometimes quite regular and complete; but sometimes we observe instead only 
the urofasciatura, which is the banding of the tail alone. It is partial or imperfect uroptero- 
Jasciatura, because I think that the urofasciati specimens at some time of life would be 
uropterofasciati, viz. with the complete development of the anomaly. The difference between the 
greater or less extension of white or black on certain feathers should be ascribed to variations such 
as one remarks in every case of abnormality. The amount of space in the tail occupied by the band 
varies from a third to a half or more. Regarding its situation, the band crosses the base, the middle, 
or the tip, or it may occupy the centre of the tail and be divided in two by a narrow zone of a darker 
colour. ‘The colouring may be white, dirty-white, pearly-grey, dark grey, &c.; but this, in my opinion, 
is of secondary importance, for I think that the zone appears from the fading of the colour and 
disappears by darkening, so that being white in its fully complete state it assumes other shades 
during the periods of formation and disappearance. Тһе discoloration of the band may not take 
place in the same way on all the feathers, but in patches—that is, first on one part, then in the 
following feather, and so on to the outer ones. In some it occupies the whole tail, in others a 
very small part only of the latter. Тһе banding on the wings would be marked in species which 
had wings like those of Lanius excubitor and L. auriculatus, according as it was more or less 
developed: it is more visible when the wing is folded, because it only or more particularly occupies 
the outer webs of the feathers. We have special cases in which we notice how the anomalous 
colouring of the wings disappears with less rapidity on the secondaries, which assume the band more 
easily, and we notice how different it is in the primaries. 
