и 
MERULA POLIONOTA. 
RORAIMA GREY OUZEL. 
Turdus flavipes (nec Vieill.), Salvin, Ibis, 1885, p. 198. 
d similis M. flavipedi. 9 tamen diversa: suprà sordidé cinerascenti-olivacea, uropygio et supracaudalibus 
clarius cinerascentibus: subalaribus et axillaribus sordide aurantiaco-fulvis : alis subtüs isabellinis, vix fulvo 
adumbrato. 
ALTHOUGH the males of the Roraima bird scarcely differ at all from Brazilian examples of M. flavipes, 
the females seem to me to be very different. They are much darker and of a dull ashy-olive above, 
with the rump and upper tail-coverts clearer ashy-grey. The chief difference, however, lies in the 
colour of the under wing-coverts and axillaries, which are very dull orange-buff, not nearly so clear 
orange as in the females of the allied forms, and the quill.lining is ashy-isabelline, not tinged with 
orange as with the hen birds of M. flavipes and M. venezuelensis. 
There is still some doubt as to the precise identification of the females of this group of Ouzels, 
but if the hens have been properly referred to this Roraima form of M. flavipes, 1 do not see how it 
can be considered identical with the Brazilian bird. Тһе whole question is still very obscure, and it 
is doubtful if M. polionota will be found to be restricted to Roraima, as a female specimen sent by 
Mocquerys to the Tring Museum seems to me to be the same as the Venezuelan bird. 
Adult male. Similar to M. flavipes, but having a very different coloured female. Total length 
8:8 inches, culmen 0:7, wing 4:5, tail 3:4, tarsus 1:0. 
Adult female. Differs from the female of M. flavipes in being dark olive-brown, shading off into 
slaty-grey on the lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ; wing-coverts like the back; the bastard- 
wing, primary-coverts, and quills brown, shaded externally with olive, a little more fulvescent on the 
outer web of the primaries; tail-feathers dusky brown, with a slight olive shading on the edges; 
sides of face and ear-coverts dark olive-brown like the crown, with faint whitish streaks along the 
shafts of the ear-coverts; cheeks, throat, and under surface dusky ochraceous-olive; centre of the 
breast and abdomen dingy ashy-grey, inclining to white on the vent; under tail-coverts dingy grey, 
centred with white shaft-lines and whitish bars and margins; chin and upper throat ashy, streaked 
with spots of dusky brown; under wing-coverts and axillaries dingy ochraceous-brown, slightly 
shaded with orange-buff; quills ashy-brown below, somewhat lighter ashy along the edge of the inner 
web. Total length 7:5 inches, culmen 0:8, wing 4:3, tail 9:1, tarsus 0:95. 
The descriptions have been taken from a typical pair of birds from Roraima in the British 
Museum. [Е. B. S.] 
