468 



MASKED GRAKLE. 



Gracula larvata. G, subfirrugineo-griseay alis caudaque mgn's, 

 'verfice canmcuUs duabus erectis, menfo palea ampla bifida, 



Subferruginous-grey Grakle^ with black wings and tail, crown 

 furnished with two upright caruncles, and chin with a large 

 bifid wattle. 



Sturnus gallinaceus. S, cinereus, regione oculorum nnda, ad 

 basin mandibulde inferioris palea duplici, cristaqite verticis mem- 

 hranacea bifida erectafulva. Lath. ind. orn. 



Cockscomb Stare. Lath, syn. ' 



Gracula carunculata. G. cinerea, cauda remigibusque atris, 

 verfice mentoque carunculatis. Lin. Gmel. 



Mainate Porte- Lambeaux. LevailL ois. pi. 93. 



Size rather larger than a Starling: bill yellow: 

 irides brown: head naked and reddish behind, and 

 covered in front with a naked black skin, rising 

 into an upright process immediately above the 

 bill, and on the top of the head into a much larg^ 

 one, and extending beneath the chin into a very 

 large double wattle, the points of which are mode- 

 rately sharp: the remainder of the bird, except 

 the wings and tail, which are black with purple 

 reflexions, is of a reddish grey : the legs yellow. 

 The female is rather smaller than the male, and 

 much less conspicuously wattled; and the young, 

 during their first year, exhibit no appearance of 

 this appendage. Native of the interior of Africa, 

 assembling, like Starlings, in vast flocks, and feed- 

 ing on insects, worms, and fruit. In the descrip- 

 tion of this bird in a German work entitled Natur- 

 forcher, the wattles are said to be fulvous- or 

 orange-coloured, but Monsr. Levaillant describes 

 them as black in the living bird. 



