(PLATE 2, FIG. 3.)
_Necropsar leguati_ Forbes, Bull. Liverp. Mus. I, p. 34, pl.
_Sturnidae_ I (1897-1898).
Dr. Forbes' description is as follows:--"General colour white everywhere,
except on the outer webs of distal half of the primaries and secondaries
and the outer webs of the newly moulted and both webs of the unmoulted
rectrices, which are marked with lighter or darker ferruginous."
Dr. Forbes then gives an exhaustive description of the structure, to which
I refer my readers, and the following measurements:--
Culmen 32 mm.
Wing 109 "
Tail 98 "
Tarsus 31.5 "
I should have been inclined to consider this bird an albinistic specimen of
the bird described in "Relation de l'Ile Rodrigue," but for the fact that
the tibia of _Necropsar rodericanus_ is 52-59 mm. in length, while this is
only 46 mm. in length, while the metatarsus measures 31.5 mm. as opposed to
36-41 mm. in _N. rodericanus_. I cannot accept the theory that this is the
Islet au Mât bird, and therefore different from _N. rodericanus_, as the
islet is too close to Rodriguez to have had a different starling. I
therefore believe this bird to have been an albinistic specimen of the
Mauritius species of _Necropsar_, for there can be little doubt that it is
albinistic, as the ferruginous colour is much stronger on one wing than on
the other; and I conclude that the colour in the wings and tail in normal
specimens was black like the Rodriguez bird, and that _N. leguati_ was a
close ally of _N. rodericanus_, from which it differed principally in its
much smaller size.
Habitat doubtful.--The type specimen bears Lord Derby's Museum number,
1792, and a label of Verreaux giving Madagascar as the habitat, which is
certainly erroneous.
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