124 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



lating to it, that we could obtain, is given in our Birds of California 

 and Texas, I, p. 165, Plate XXVIII. 



7. Genus CALORNIS, G. R. Gray, List Gen. Birds, p. 53 (1841). 



1. Calornis corvina (KittUtz). 



Lamprotornis corvina, Kittlitz, Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg, 1833, p. 7. 

 Lanms pacificus, Gm. Syst. Nat. I, p. 306 (1788) ? 



Lamprotornis atrifusca, FeaJjE, Zool. U. S. Exp. Exp. 1st ed. Birds, p. 109 (1848).* 



Mem. Acad. St. Petersburg, 1833, Plate IX. 



Bill long, very strong ; culmen curved gradually from the base ; 

 plumage of the head, neck, and breast, scale-like and pointed ; tarsi 

 moderate ; toes and claws strong, the latter fully curved ; wings and 

 tail long. Entire plumage black, with green and purple metallic 

 lustre, especially on the head, neck, and breast. Primaries edged 

 exteriorly with reddish-brown ; under surface of the tail, with a tinge 

 of the same color. Bill black ; legs paler; irides reddish-brown. 



Dimensions. — Total length (of skin, sex unknown), ten and a half 

 inches ; wing, six inches ; tail, four inches ; bill from the corner of the 

 mouth, one and one-fourth inches ; tarsus, about one and one-fourth 

 inches; extent of wings, seventeen and a half inches. 



Hab. — Samoan Islands. Specimen in Nat. Mus. Washington City. 



* " Head and neck, dark purple or black, with metallic reflections ; wings, tail, and 

 body, umber-brown, darkest in front, and running into the dark color of the neck ; outer 

 margins of the primaries ferruginous-brown; tail rounded, the feathers pointed; bill 

 strong, black ; legs reddish-brown ; irides, reddish-brown. 



"Total length, ten and three-quarter inches; extent of wings, seventeen and a half 

 inches; wing from the carpal joint, six and one-tenth inches; tail, four and one-tenth 

 inches; tarsi, one and one-fourth of an inch; middle toe, including the claw, one and a 

 half inches ; claw, nine-twentieths of an inch ; hind toe, one and three-twentieths of an 

 inch ; claw, half an inch ; bill, one and one-tenth of an inch ; to the angle of the mouth, 

 one and three-tenths of an inch." 



