Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/175

Rh Female. Differs from the male in the coloration of the wing only. The secondaries and tertiaries have the basal patch on the outer webs yellowish brown instead of blue, and this colour occupies the major portion of the outer webs of the greater coverts, the blue edgings being very narrow.

The young bird (perhaps the female nestling onl} r, the male resembling the adult male probably in the coloration of the wing) has the croxvu, forehead, and nape bluish brown, each feather tipped black and with a subterminal band of white ; the upper plumage greenish brown, with large buff spots : supercihum black ; ear-coverts white, with blackish tips ; the whole lower plumage buff, irregularly and narrowly cross-barred with black ; the wings and tail as in the adult female.

A nearly adult bird killed in Sikhim in March, and one in Manipur in May, have the cheeks, ear-coverts, and a demi-collar at the side of the neck pure white ; the chin and throat also are whitish, and the lower plumage bright chestnut-brown. According to Hume this is the second stage of plumage. There does not appear to be anything analogous to it, however, in C. purpurea.

Iris brown, brownish orange, dull brownish maroon ; legs brown, with a varying amount of pinkish tinge ; bill black ; gape and orbital skin pink (Hume Coll.).

Length about 11; tail 4*8; wing 5*6; tarsus 1-1 ; bill from gape 1'2.

Distribution. The Himalayas from Kumaun to Sikhim up to 11,000 feet; Cachar; Manipur. This species extends into China. Hume gives the Bhagirati valley as the western limit of this- Thrush, but there is no specimen from this locality now in his collection, and I have seen none from further west than Jeoli below Naini Tal.

Habits, $c. The nest of this species is described as being a cup composed of fine twigs and roots coated externally with moss, and built on branches of large trees ten to twenty feet from the ground. An egg was greyish green marked with red, and measured 1-03 by -75.

Subfamily CINCLINÆ.

The Cinclince or Dippers appear to be allied to the Thrushes, but to have undergone some modification of structure to adapt them to a different mode of life.

In the Dippers the bill is about as long as the head, narrow and straight, the tip slightly bent down and notched ; the nostrils are covered by a large membrane and the rictal bristles are entirely absent ; the wing is very short and rounded ; the tail exceedingly short ; the tarsus long and smooth.

The sexes are alike and the young are spotted. These do not assume the adult plumage till the first spring of their life, and the change is effected by the casting-off of the margins of the feathers.