W : ;í
Water-Crow, Water-Pyet and Kingfisher, it is foolishly destroyed
by every possible device, under the mistaken idea
that it haunts the spawning-beds to feed on the ova of the
Salmon and Trout, while examination of its gizzard proves
it to be one of the best guardians of a fishery.
The bill is brownish-black ; the irides hazel; the margin
of the eyelids white ; the head and neck umber-brown ; hack,
wings and wiug-coverts, rump, tail, sides, flanks and under
tail-coverts, brownish-black; the margins of the wing-coverts
and the tips of the feathers of the body, of a lighter greyish-
black ; chin, neck and upper part of the breast, pure white;
lower part of the breast chestnut-brown; legs, toes and claws
brown. Females resemble the males.
The whole length of the specimen described was seven
inches and one quarter; from the carpal joint to the end of
the wing, three inches and three-eighths.
The young bird in its first plumage has the whole of the
upper parts dull greyish-brown ; the wing-coverts and tertials
tipped with greyish-white; the chin white; the feathers of
the front of the neck and breast pale buff tipped with brown ;
belly, sides and vent, grey, with darker lines. In this
plumage it appears to be the Penrith Ouzel of Pennant.
The vignette below represents the breastbone of the Dipper,
which, when fully adult, has the notches at the posterior
end bridged across, and, thus presenting an uninterrupted
margin, differs from that of any other British species of the
order Passeres.
i t :
V. iaX-- X I X —IU - - ___
PASSERES. IX1DM.
P y cn o n o tu s c a p e n s is (Linnaeus*).
GOLD-YENTED THRUSH.
Turdus aurig aster \ .
P y cn o no tu s, Kuhl — Bill moderately long, somewhat decurved and laterally
compressed, nostrils basal, oval and placed in a groove, a few bristles at the
gape. Wings moderate and rounded, with the fourth, fifth and sixth quills
nearly equal and longest. Tail moderate and almost square. Tarsi stout,
generally covered in front with a single scale ; toes moderate, the lateral toes unequal,
the hind toe rather long and strong.
In the month of January, 1838, this South-African bird was
shot at Mount Beresford, three miles and a half from Water-
* Turdus capensis, Linmeus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12. i. p. 295 (1766).
+ Not Turdus aurigaster, Vieillot.
Í Isis, 1826, p. 973. Prof. Agassiz (Nomenclátor Zoologicus. Aves, p. 66)
quotes “ Pycnonotus Kuhl Av. col. nom. syst. 1820 ” ; but the reference is incorrect,
and the Editor cannot supply an earlier date for the genus than that
now given, when it was used by F. Boie as of Kuhl’s foundation.