Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/113

Rh Genus CYANECULA, Brehm, 1828.

The genus Cyanecula contains the Blue-throats, birds which are very closely allied to the English Robin. The Blue-throats may be recognized by their very short tail, which is only twice the length of the tarsus, and by the chestnut colour of the basal half of the tail. The males, moreover, have the chin and throat a brilliant blue. The females are of a dull colour, but have the tail chestnut as in the male.

The Blue-throats feed on the ground, and are generally found in India in thick grass-jungle, arid more rarely in open country. They prefer swampy ground. They run well, elevating the tail on arriving at the end of each short course of running, and sometimes expanding it. They are said to be good songsters. They breed in holes on the ground, and lay blue eggs spotted with reddish brown. The only two species of this genus are highly migratory.

Key to the Species.

a. Throat blue, with a chestnut spot in the centre C. suecica <$, p. 99. b. Throat blue, either entirely or with a white spot in the centre C. wolfi <3, p. 100. , Throat huffish w) ,ite j ?$ 647. Cyanecula suecica. The Indian Blue-throat.

Motacilla suecica, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 336, part. (1766). Motacilla caerulecula, Pall. Zooyr. Ross.-Asiat. i, p. 480 (1811). Cyanecula suecica (Linn.}, Blyth, Cat. p. 167 ; Horsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 311; Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 152; Hume $ Renders. Lah. to Yark. p. 214 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped, p. 614 ; Lcyye, Birds Ceyl. p. 443 ; Hume, Cat. no. 514 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 304 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 209.

Erithacus caeruleculus (Pall.), Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 308 ; Oates, B. B. i, p. 15.

Huseni-pidda, Hind. ; Nil kunthi, Hind, in the N. ; Gunpigera, Gurpedra, Beng. ; Dwnbak, Sind.

Coloration. Male. Whole upper plumage with wings brown, the feathers of the head and back with darker centres ; chin and throat bright blue, with a chestnut spot in the centre of the throat ; below the blue a band of black and below this a broader band of chestnut : lores black ; a stripe from the nostrils to the eye fulvous ; cheeks and ear-coverts mixed fulvous and black ; belly, flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts huffish white ; middle tail-feathers brown, the others chestnut on the basal half and brown on the terminal half.

Female. The whole lower plumage huffish white, with a broad brown-spotted gorget across the breast.