Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/145

Rh the whole head, neck, and breast deep glossy black, except the tips of the median coverts, the outer webs of the greater coverts and tertiaries, and the margins of the outer webs of the later secondaries, which are silvery ashy grey with a tinge of vinaceous ; lower plumage from the breast downwards, the axillaries, and under wing-coverts dull black, each feather narrowly margined with whitish.

Fig. 37. Head of M. boulboul.

Female. Brownish ashy throughout with an olivaceous tinge, the marks on the wings, which are similar to those of the male in shape and disposition, being pale rufous.

In the male the legs and feet are brownish in front, yellow behind ; bill coral-red, tip black ; iris brown ; edges of eyelids orange-yellow (Hume Coll.) : in the female the iris is hazel-red ; bill orange, horny at tip ; legs burnt sienna (Cockburn).

Length about 11-5 ; tail 4-5 ; wing 5*7 ; tarsus 1'3 ; bill from gape 1-25.

Distribution. A resident on the Himalayas from their bases up to 8000 feet, the range varying according to season. This Ouzel occurs from Murree to Sikhim ; it has also been obtained in the Bhutan Doars, the Khasi hills, Cachar, and Manipur.

Habits, &fc. This Ouzel builds its nest sometimes on the ground in the hollow of a massive root or fallen trunk, and sometimes, more frequently perhaps, on a ledge of rock or on the extremity of a thick branch, where it has been cut or broken off. The nest is constructed of moss and leaves, and little or no mud is used in the structure. The breeding-season lasts from April to August. The eggs, four in number, are dingy green thickly marked with reddish brown, and measure about 1*2 by '87.

677. Merula atrigularis. The Black-throated Ouzel.

Turdus atrogularis, Temm.Man.tfOrn. ed.2, i, p. 169, pi. (1820); M/th, Cat. p. 101 ; Horsf. Sf M. Cat. i, p. 195 ; Hume, Cat. no. 80o. Planesticus atrogularis (jPewiw.), Jerd. B. I. i, p. 529; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xxxvii, pt. ii, p. 35 ; Hume $ Henders. Lah. to Yark. p. 192 ; Scully, S. F. iv, p. 140, viii, p. 286.

Cichloides atrogularis (Temm.), Hume, 8. F. i, p. 179.