M. intermedia.
;• Males. Females.
Tu rk e stan ...................... . . . 5-45 5-2-5-45
Yarkand • ...................... 5-25-5-5 5-35-5*55
A k s u ............................ 5-2
Afghanistan . . . . . . . 5-15-53 4-95-5-0
I t 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 in Dresser’s ‘ Birds of Europe.’ I t 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! He 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 urofasdatura and
uropterofasciatura (i. e. tail-banded and tail-wing-banded).
“ The uropterofasciatura presents itself on the wings and tail, and in some eases it is
probably a form of albiuism and also a modification of the latter, if we admit that the feathers remain
unchanged. I t is sometimes quite regular and complete ; but sometimes we observe instead only
the urofasdatura, which is the banding of the tail alone. I t is partial or imperfect uroptero-
fasdatura, because I think that the urofasdati specimens at some time of life would be
uropterofasdati, 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, «fee.; 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. The 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. The banding on the wings would he 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.
“ The abnormality appears at the age of two months or a little more, disappearing at the epoch
of the first moult by the blackening of the light portion of the feathers. The white marking is
less seldom seen in adult specimens and then it lasts a long time, and I have observed it for
several consecutive years.
“ Under microscopical examination the shaft of .some of the tail-feathers of birds affected by this
abnormality seemed as if the birds were out of health. Taking this fact into account, and that
such birds are weaker than ordinary individuals, we must conclude that the abnormal plumage is
really the effect of a retarded and irregular moult. Their system being weakened, they would fall
into an unhealthy condition, and it is certainly very difficult to keep them alive. Albinism is
associated with atavic characters in the disposition of the young birds. The position occupied by the
whitish band on a regular portion of the plumage seems to me to be explained by atavic phenomena,
and one can thus understand the reason of an interesting process. Regarding the appearance of the
zones, it seems that the one on the tail comes first, if not; at the same time as that on the wing.
The band seems to disappear without any influence of moulting, and even sometimes without any
partial abrasion of the feathers. For the various positions of the band on the tail what reason can
we give ? The zone which from its atavic character resembles that of other species may be formed
in that part which by the weakness of the bird, or from some other cause, is more liable to change :
sometimes the zone is patterned in the centre of the feathers, being margined above and below by a
darker colour, as in the Peewit and Golden Eagle. Sometimes, however, the zone occupies a
different area by its extension and situation, and it is very' probable that in the' progression of the
darkening of the tail the differences which, we have noted with regard to the extension and the
position of the zone should be attributed to the difference in the age of the birds, as I have observed
with regard to the colours of the latter ” *.
The descriptions are taken from the series of birds in the British Museum, and the specimens
figured are a pair of adult birds from Heligoland in the Seebohm Collection, the young bird being
from Sheffield in the same Collection. g g ~\
Of.. Arrigoni degli Oddi (E.), “ Sulla Colorazione a fascie in alcuni individui giovani della Merula nigra,” Atti It. Accad.
Scienze dx Padova, vol. iii. disp. iv. (1887), and “ Studi sugli IJccelli uropterofasdati,” Atti Soc. Yen.-Tr. So. Nat. vol. xi.
fasc. ii. (1890), con tav.
c 2