Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/165

Rh greater coverts most conspicuously so; a broad pale buff supercilium from the bill to the nape; lores black; ear-coverts brown streaked with buff; chin, throat, and breast pale buff streaked with blackish ; middle of the abdomen white ; sides of the abdomen white streaked with brown ; flanks, axillaries, and under wing-coverts chestnut; under tail-coverts white, basally margined with brown.

The summer plumage, resulting from the wear of the feathers at their margins, does not differ very much from the winter plumage.

Bill dark brown ; legs pale ; iris brown (Seebohm). Length about 8'5; tail '3-3; wing 4'6 ; tarsus 1-2; bill from gape 1.

Distribution. I have not been able to examine any specimen of Redwing procured in India, and I admit the species on the authority of Jerdon, who states that at the time he wrote it had been lately found in the N.W. Himalayas, but very rarely. " But at Kohtit, ' he adds, ** as I am assured by Mr. Blyth, according to a very good observer, the late Lieut. Trotter, it is a regular winter visitant in large flocks."

The Red wing has even a larger range than the Fieldfare, being found in the Northern parts of Europe and Asia in summer from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and wandering south in the winter as far as Turkestan and Persia on the east, and Southern Europe on the west.

Genus OREOCINCLA, Gould, 1837.

In the genus Oreocincla the sexes are alike, the under wing-coverts and axillaries are each of two colours, those on the axillaiies being transposed or reversed in order on the under wing-coverts ; the lower plumage is distinctly barred or spotted, never squamated, and the rictal bristles are few and confined to the gape. The tail is typically short, and the upper tail-coverts very ample. There is a distinct pattern on the underside of the wing.

The Thrushes of this genus are permanent residents in the tracts they inhabit, or very locally migratory. They are found in thickly wooded parts.

The bill of the Thrushes of this genus varies much in shape and size. In 0. dauma, 0. mollissima, and 0. dixoni it is as small as in Turdus ; in 0. spiloptera it is larger and very deep ; and in 0. imbricata and 0. nilyiriensis it is extremely large and coarse, resembling the bill of Zoothera.

Key to the Species.

a. Feathers of upper plumage boldly tipped with crescentic black bars. a'. Ground-colour of lower plumage white a". Third and fourth quills equal and longest ;