Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/39

Rh and perhaps even more, if we are to credit the statements of some of the inhabitants of Villafranca. Nor ought we to be surprised that some attributed this to a miracle, and recognized in it the direct hand of Providence.

As is known, Pastor roseus inhabits the warm countries of Africa and Asia, and is pretty well distributed over all the regions of the Caucasus. Essentially a wandering bird, it migrates more or less regularly to the South of Europe. It has been many times observed in Greece, and more rarely in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and England. In Italy this very beautiful bird shows itself rarely enough, and is of irregular passage, though it may now be said that some individuals at more or less lengthened intervals have been taken in nearly every part of our country.

As regards the Province of Verona, it is particularly noticeable that Pastor roseus figures among the rarer species, many years sometimes passing without an example being even seen; or else showing itself in little parties of from six to ten or twelve, in May or June, and staying but a very few days. It was therefore quite exceptional that, in June, 1870, a hundred or more wandered for about a week in the country along the Veronese shore of the Benaco [Lago di Garda].

This being premised, the scientific interest of the notes now given will be more easily understood. They refer to the appearance, and more especially to the nidification and propagation of Pastor roseus, a subject with which modern authors are not much acquainted, and the statements made with regard to the reproduction of this bird in Italy may hitherto be regarded more as suppositious than anything else.

Thus the illustrious Savi (Orn.Tosc. i. p. 180; Orn. Ital. i. p. 354) was only able to announce, on the testimony of others, the nidification of many Rose-coloured Starlings in the Mugello in 1740, concluding his account with the remark that the propagation of this species is "little known." So, too, wrote Perini (Orn. Veron. p. 118), when he said we might infer that a certain pair had bred in the Province of Verona in 1840, from the fact of his having in his possession a female in which perfect eggs were found. Lastly, Salvadori ('Fauna d'ltalia,' Uccelli, p. 167) considers the occasional breeding of some pairs is possible, from the fact of his having seen several very young examples taken in Piedmont in September.