Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/146

182 Merula atrigularis (Temm.), Barnes, Birds 'Bom. p. 173; Seebohm, Cat. S. M. v, p. 267.

The Black-throated Thrush, Jerd. ; Mach-reycha, Beng.

Coloration. Male. After the autumn moult the lores, cheeks, chin, throat, breast, and sides of the neck are black, each feather with a broad white margin ; rest of the underparts white, the sides of the body with ashy streaks ; under wing-coverts dull orange-brown ; axillaries rufous-grey; under tail-coverts dark brown tipped with white ; ear-coverts, the whole upper plumage, and the visible portions of the closed wings and tail greyish brown, the feathers of the crown centred with dark brown. Soon after the moult the white margins of the head, neck, and breast become reduced in width, and are altogether lost by summer, causing the parts to appear uniformly black.

Female. Sides of the head and neck greyish brown like the upper plumage ; chin and throat whitish streaked with dark brown ; breast ashy brown spotted with black ; otherwise as the male.

Legs and feet greyish brown ; bill blackish brown, dusky yellow at base of lower mandible ; iris blackish brown {Butler}.

Length about 10 ; tail 3*8 ; wing 5'2 ; tarsus 1*3 ; bill from gape 1.

Distribution. A winter visitor to the Himalayas and the plains of Upper India. This species extends throughout the Himalayas from Hazara to Assam. In the plains it is found as far south as Karachi, Cutch, Delhi, and Dacca. Erom Assam it ranges south through the hill-tracts to Manipur.

Jerdon speaks of this Ouzel as inhabiting the higher ranges of the Himalayas in summer. This statement has received no confirmation since he made it ; but it is not improbably correct, as I have seen a specimen killed at Simla on the 14th August and one killed in Kashmir in May. The bulk of these Ouzels, however, if not all, retire north to Siberia to breed. In winter they are found in Central Asia and Afghanistan, but not to the east of Assam.

678. Merula unicolor. TickelTs Ouzel.

Turdus unicolor, Tick. J. A. S. B. ii, p. 577 (1833). Petrocincla homochroa, Hodgs. in Grays Zool. Misc. p. 83 (1844). Turdus dissimilis, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvi, p. 144, part. (1847). Geocichla dissimilis, Blyth, Cat. p. 163 ; Horsf. fy M. Cat. i, p. 101. Geocichla unicolor (Tick.), Blyth, Cat. p. 163; Jerd, B. I. i, p. 519; Hume $ Renders. Lah. to Yark. p. 192 ; Hume, N. 8f E. p. 230; Ball, S. F. ii, p. 408, vii, p. 213 ; Hume, Cat. no. 356 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 283 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 171.

Merula unicolor (Tick.), Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 271 ; Oates in Hume's N. 8f E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 96.

The Dusky Ground-Thrush, Jerd. ; Desi pawai, Hind. ; Machasah, Beng. ; Poda paliaa, Tel.

Coloration. Male. The upper plumage, sides of head and neck, and the visible portions of the closed wings and tail ashy grey ;