28 
SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
G. —The genus Pterocles , separated by Temminck from Tetrao , includes only 
two species, P. setarius , and the subject of the present plate, an inhabitant of 
Spain, Sicily, North-Africa, and Asia. A male and female are here represented 
in Mr. Gould’s best and boldest style. 
Blue-throated Warbler, Phoenicura —, Motacilla —, Sylvia —, Curruca—l 
Suecica ,—Becfin Gorge-bleue, Fr. —Beca-Fico chiamato, It. —Of this beautiful 
and interesting little bird, thinly dispersed over the European Continent, from 
Sweden to the Mediterranean, one specimen only has yet been met with in the 
British islands. It is at once distinguishable from its congeners by the ultra- 
marine blue colour of the throat and upper part of the neck, with a patch of pure 
silky white in the centre. The male and female are exquisitely figured by Mr. 
Gould. Cyanecula is obviously a more appropriate specific designation than 
Suecica , for a blue-throated bird. 
Green Woodpecker, Picus viridis ,—Pic vert, Fr. —Picchio verde, It. —■ 
Griinspecht, G. —is here delineated in all the author’s characteristic style of 
boldness, accuracy, and splendour. The two figures exhibited, are those of an 
adult and young male bird. On what good ground this beautiful inhabitant of 
our forests has been torn from its ancient family-connections, and transformed 
into a Chrysoptilus , we have yet to learn. 
Of our favourite little songster, the Black-cap, Curruca — , Motacilla —, 
Sylvia >—-, atricapilla ,—Bec-fin a-tete-noir, Fr. —Capinera commune, It.— 
Schwarzkopfige Grasmiicke, G .—we are here presented with two delightful figures, 
male and female. To our view, the present is one of the most captivating plates 
in Mr. Gould’s splendid and captivating work. It is necessary to distinguish 
the present bird from Sylvia melanocephala of Latham,-—B ec-fin melanocephale 
of Temminck,— a species which inhabits South-Europe, but is, as yet, an alien to 
the British islands. 
A charming representation of the Grey Snipe, Macroramphus griseus , —- 
Becassine ponctuee, Fr. —in two figures, illustrating the appearance of the bird 
in its Summer and Winter plumage. It is, in its former state, the Bed-breasted 
Snipe of Pennant and of Wilson,— Scolopax Novoboracensis , Latham,— 
American Ornithology , Vol. II., p. 337 ; in the latter, the Brown Snipe of 
Pennant, and S. grisea of Latham’s Index Ornithologicus. It is mentioned, 
under the title of the New-York Godwit, at p. 398 of Northern Zoology ; 
and figured, under the article 44 Snipe,” in the Supplement to Montagu’s Orni¬ 
thological Dictionary. Three specimens only of this bird have hitherto been 
killed in Europe. The criticism of Temminck on the elevation of the Grey Snipe 
to the head of a new genus, so strictly accords with our own views and opinions, 
that we shall transcribe it:— 44 Leach has formed of this species a new genus, 
under the name of Macroramphus griseus , apparently on account of the minute 
