Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/154

140 and throat white ; an oblique brown band from the eye down- wards, succeeded by a baud of white behind it running down the neck, and by another brown band running through the middle of the ear-coverts, followed again by a narrow white patch ; axillaries white, tipped with ashy fulvous; under wing-coverts slaty blue, tipped with white ; a large patch of white on the underside of the quills.

Female. Differs from the male in having the back, scapulars, the outer webs of the secondaries, and many of the wing-coverts suffused with olive-green.

Iris dark brown ; bill black ; feet fleshy ; claws dusky (Fair- bank}. Length about 8*5 ; tail 3 ; wing 4*1 ; tarsus 1*2 ; bill from gape 1-1.

Distribution. The southern half of the peninsula of India, from about north latitude 24 to Travancore. This species appears to be resident or very locally migratory within the above-defined area, and to be found up to 4000 feet.

Habits, fyc. Breeds from June to September, making a nest apparently very similar to that of G. citrina, but using mud in its construction. The eggs are pale bluish or greenish white marked with rufous, and measure about 1 by '75.

686. Geocichla citrina. The Orange-headed Ground- Thrush.

Turdus citrinus, Lath. Ind. Orn. i, p. 350 (1790). Geocichla citrina (Lath.), Blyth, Cat. p. 163 ; Horsf. 8f M. Cat. i, p. 189; Jerd. B. I., p. 517 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 229 ; Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 250 ; Hume, Cat. no. 355 ; Leyge, Birds Ceyl. p. 457 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 283 ; Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 172 ; Gates, B. B. i, p. 3; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 171 ; Oates in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 100. Geocichla layardi, Wald. A. M. N. H. (4) v, p. 416 (1870); Hume, S. F. iii, p. 401.

Coloration. Male. The whole head, neck, and lower parts as far as the vent orange-chestnut, darker on the crown and paler beneath ; vent, thighs, and under tail-coverts pure white ; back, scapulars, rump, upper tail-coverts, and lesser wing-coverts bluish grey, the edges of the feathers paler ; median wing-coverts broadly tipped white, forming a conspicuous spot ; remaining coverts and the quills dark brown, edged exteriorly with bluish grey ; tail ashy brown indistinctly cross-barred ; axillaries white, tipped with grey ; under wing-coverts ashy tipped with white ; a large white patch on the underside of the quills.

Female. Of a paler chestnut throughout ; the back and scapulars greenish brown with yellowish margins ; upper tail-coverts and the outer webs of the feathers of the wings and tail suffused with green.

Bill very dark brown, the gape and the base of the lower mandible