Identifier: birdsofafricacom51shel (find matches)
Title: The birds of Africa, comprising all the species which occur in the Ethiopian region
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Shelley, G. E. (George Ernest), 1840-1910 Sclater, W. L. (William Lutley), 1863-1944 Grönvold, Henrik, 1858-1940
Subjects: Birds Birds
Publisher: London, Published for the author by R.H. Porter (18 Princes Street, Cavendish Square, W.)
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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breast; this bronze colourextends in an angle on to the neck just behind the cheeks ; sides of abdomen,thighs and under tail-coverts blue shaded with lilac and bronze ; undersurface of wings and tail dull black, with the under wing-coverts slightlyglossed with bronze and the bend of the wing violet blue. Iris white ; billand feet black. Total length 11 inches, culmen 1-0, wing 6-2, tail 4-4,tarsus 14. Adult female. Like the male, but smaller. Wing 5-7. J , PrincesIsland (Keulemans). The Princes Island Glossy Starling is, I believe, confinedto that island. The only specimens I have examined of the species wereshot on Princes Island. It has nominally been procured bvMr. F. Newton on Fernando Po, by Weiss on St. ThomasIsland, and has also been recorded by Hartlaub from Gaboon(Fosse), and from Angola (Canivet). If the range of thespecies is not restricted to Princes Island, but really extendsfrom Fernando Po to St. Thomas Island, there is no reason THE BIRDS OF AFRICA,PL.Xl.V . -■■^ ,
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s^O^. Lamprccoli-us splendidus. LAMPROTOKXrS SPLENDIDUS 65 why we should doubt the accurac) of the localities, Gaboonand Angola, on specimens in the Paris Museum; but Ibelieve it to be a local species. This remarkably fine Glossy Starling, Mr. Keulemansinforms me, is common in all the wooded parts of PrincesIsland, where I saw it in Hocks of six to twenty individuals,especially in the morning, ever busy and restless, making adeal of noise by their incessant call-notes and the beatingof their wings, which is remarkably loud. Can this be causedby the peculiar form of the quills ? After mid-day the flocksretire into the higher parts of the trees, usually squattingand chuckling all the while, very much in the same manneras our English Starling does of an afternoon on the tops ofour houses. In their movements they reminded me of ourBlackbird, and their song and call-note is exactly like thatof the Golden Oriole. Their food consists chiefly of berriesand bananas, but also includes large num

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