. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. Storrs L. Olson et al. 3b 2005 125(1) But an albino what? Surely it is not a starling. 'Its wings, however, are quite unlike those of any starling/ as Forbes (1898: 30) himself stated outright. He went on to amplify this further (p. 33): 'It possesses ten primaries, and of these the tenth, or outermost, is not the rudimentary or very reduced quill seen in the Sturnidae generally/ It is testimony to his willingness to delude himself that he could continue to rationalise that the bird was somehow nevertheless a starling. The well
. Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. Birds. Storrs L. Olson et al. 3b 2005 125(1) But an albino what? Surely it is not a starling. 'Its wings, however, are quite unlike those of any starling/ as Forbes (1898: 30) himself stated outright. He went on to amplify this further (p. 33): 'It possesses ten primaries, and of these the tenth, or outermost, is not the rudimentary or very reduced quill seen in the Sturnidae generally/ It is testimony to his willingness to delude himself that he could continue to rationalise that the bird was somehow nevertheless a starling. The well-developed outer primary not only establishes that the specimen is not a starling, but also not a member of any of the so-called nine-primaried oscines. Likewise, the wing is not 'short, rounded, and 'concave' as attributed to most of the species of Timaliidae (Newton 1896: 963). The tarsal scutellation (inaccurately depicted by Forbes 1898) is not 'booted' as in the typical thrushes (Turdidae). Bill shape alone eliminates many other groups such as finches, shrikes and flycatching birds. Bulbuls (Pycnonotidae) may be absolutely ruled out by their tiny feet, bill shape and presence of filoplumes in the nape. Furthermore. X-radiographs of the holotype of N. leguati (Fig. 2) show that it did not have the posterior margin of the nostril ossified as in the Pycnonotidae (Olson 1990), thus eliminating the family with which the specimen had originally been associated while in Lord Derby's collection. Through such a process of elimination we were finally led to make detailed comparisons with the species of Mimidae (mockingbirds and thrashers) and here the resemblances became much greater. In size, length and shape of bill, wing formula, and foot structure and scutellation, the holotype of N. leguati could be 2 cm. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations m
Size: 1545px × 1617px
Photo credit: © Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1893
