Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/159

Rh abdomen, barred with dark brown; under tail-coverts white itli blackish streaks.

Bill brownish black, the gape bright yellow ; tarsi dusky slaty ; the toes brownish black ; claws blackish horny (Scully).

Length about 7*5 ; tail 2*8 ; wing 4 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape 1*1.

Distribution. Found in summer throughout the Himalayas from Afghanistan and Kashmir to Bhutan; in winter throughout the plains of India as far south as Coorg, the Nilgiris and probably to Cape Comorin. This species in the winter months is more frequent on the hill-ranges of Western India than elsewhere, but it is known to occur in almost all parts of the peninsula from. Sind to Bengal. Blylh records it from Arrakan.

Habits, cj-c. Breeds in the Himalayas from 4000 to 8000 feet from April to June, constructing a cup-shaped nest of moss and dead leaves at the root of a tree, in a hole in a bank or in an old wall. The eggs, four in number, are pinkish white, densely IVeekled with brown and rufous, and measure about '92 by *72.

092. Petrophila solitaria. The Eastern Blue Roclc-Thrmli.

Turclus solitnrius, P. L. S. Mii/fcr, A>/.< Nat., Anlumy, p. 142 (1770). Tiirtlus manillensis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i, p. 833 (17s s ). Petrocincla manillensis (Gm.),Blyth, Cat. p. 164; Horsf. $ M. Cat. i, p. 188. Cyanocincla solitaria (MiiU. Hume 8f Lav. S. F. vi, p. 248 ; Hume, Cat. no. 3olbis; id. S. F. xi, p. 125. Monticola solitaria (Mull), Scebohm, Cat. JB. M. v, p. 319.

Coloration. Male. The whole head, neck, breast, upper plumage and lesser wing-coverts bright blue, most of the feathers ithsmal white tips and subterminal black spots ; median, greater, and primary coverts blackish, edged with blue and tipped with white; quills and tail black, edged with bluish and each feather very narrowly tipped white; abdomen, vent, under tail-covert, axil- laries, and under wing-coverts chestnut, with narrow white fringes and black subterminal bars ; thighs and flank-feathers adjacent to them blue.

At the end of winter the white fringes and subterminal black bars on the blue parts of the plumage are entirely lost, and the marks on the chestnut parts are also removed by abrasion in great measure, but never entirely.

Female. After the autumn moult the whole upper plumage and lesser wing-coverts are avery dull blue, most of the feathers being fringed with white and with a subterminal black bar, and the feathers of the back with black shafts ; quills and remaining wing-coverts dark brown, edged with dull blue and tipped white ; the whole lower plumage and the sides of the head and neck pale buffy white, each feather subterminally margined with black ; the under wing-coverts axillaries, and under tnil-covr1> snlViiM-d ith rufous and irregularly barred with black. In summer all tin- margins of the feathers become abraded, causing the plumage to become more uniform.