Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/134

120 665. Cittocincla albiventris. The Andaman SJiama.

Kittacincla albiventris, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxvii, p. 269 (1858) ; Ball, S. F. i, p. 73; Hume, S. F. ii, p. 232 ; Walden, Ibis, 1873, p. 307, pi. xii, fig. 1. Cercotrichas albiventris (Blytli), Hume, Cat. no. 476 bis. Cittocincla albiventris, Blyth, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. vii, p. 90.

Coloration. Both sexes are alike, or nearly so, the female merely differing from the male in having the chin and throat less glossy and they both resemble the male of C. macrura, from which they differ in the colour of the abdomen and vent, which is white instead of chestnut. The under tail-coverts and flanks are pale ferruginous. The tail is much shorter.

The nestling bird is dark brown, spotted with ferruginous ; the wings are margined with the same, and the coverts spotted.

Legs and feet pale fleshy ; bill black (Hume). Length about 9 ; tail about 5 ; wing 3*6 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape 1. The female has usually a shorter tail.

Distribution. The Andamans.

Subfamily TURBINÆ.

The Turdince comprise the true Thrushes. These differ chiefly from the Saxicolinw and Ruticillince in being of larger size, in having a greater tendency to be gregarious, and in being less dependent on insects for their food berries forming a considerable portion of their diet during winter.

The Thrushes are mostly migratory ; some few are resident, and when this is the case they are generally confined to limited areas. The majority undergo a seasonal change of plumage through the margins of the feathers dropping off ; but these changes are never very striking, and frequently hardly appreciable. The Thrushes feed a great deal on the ground, and their long tarsi enable them to hop with great facility ; they are good songsters ; they mostly build cup-shaped nests in trees, and they lay spotted eggs.

The Turdinas resemble each other closely in structure, and it is by no means easy to divide them into genera. I have had recourse to the type of coloration in subdividing them, and I have found the colour of the under wing-coverts arid axillaries of considerable importance in classification.

The young of the Thrushes are greatly spotted, and they acquire the adult plumage at the first autumn moult. I have not attempted to describe the young of each species, as, from the nature of the coloration, the descriptions, to be of any utility, must of necessity be somewhat lengthy, and space does not permit of this ; and it may be doubted if any description of young Thrushes, however ehborate, would enable the student to identify the species.