Page:The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma (Birds Vol 2).djvu/94

80 habits and colour of the egg of this species ally it to the jSaxicolince. It is probable that the position of Cercomela is among the Brachypterygince.

The Kock-Chat seems to have the habits of Saxicola, frequenting stony tracts of land and breeding in holes of rocks and old buildings. The sexes are alike, the plumage is very dull, and there is little or no seasonal change of plumage.

In Cercomela the bill and rictal bristles resemble those of Saccicola ; the wing is blunt and the first primary is about half the length of the second ; the tail is entirely of one colour and much shorter than the wing, and the tarsus is short.

Cercomela melanura (Temm.) occurs in Palestine, Arabia, and North-east Africa, and has been met with at Aden. This species was included among the birds of India by Jerdon, on the authority of Blyth, who identified it by a drawing in the possession of Sir A. Burnes. The bird, from which the drawing was taken, is stated to have been killed in Sind. I do not propose to include this species in my list, as I do not consider its occurrence in India sufficiently well authenticated. The general colour of the plumage is grey, paler beneath, and the tail and upper tail-coverts are black ; tail 2-3; wing 3-1.

629. Cercomela fusca. The Brown Rock-Chat.

Saxicola fusca, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xx, p. 523 (1851) ; id. Cat. p. xi. Cercomela fusca (Blyth), Jerd. B. I. ii, p. 134; StoUczka, J. A. S. B. xli, pt. ii, p. 240 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 319 ; Adam, S. F. i, p. 380 ; Butler, 8. F. iii, p. 477 ; Hume, Cat. no. 494 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 200 ; Gates in Hume's N. # E. 2nd ed. ii, p. 54. Myrmecocichla fusca (Blyth), Seebohm, Cat. B. M. v, p. 360. Shama, Cent. Prov.

Coloration. Upper plumage dull rufous-brown, the feathers of the upper tail-coverts darker ; wings brown, every feather edged with rufous-brown ; sides of the head and lower plumage dull ferruginous ; tail very dark brown.

Legs and feet black; bill black; iris dark brown (Hume).

Length about 6'5 ; tail 2*6 ; wing 3*5 ; tarsus 1 ; bill from gape *85.

Distribution. A resident in a considerable portion of the central parts of the Indian peninsula. The western limits of this species appear to be a line drawn from Cutch through Jodhpur to Hardwar. Thence it extends to Chunar, near Benares, on the east, and to Jubbulpur on the south, and I have not been able to trace its distribution more accurately than this.

Habits, &[c. Breeds from March to July, constructing a nest of grass and roots, lined with hair and wool, in holes of walls, quarries, banks, and cliffs, and laying three or four eggs, which are blue marked with rufous, and measure about -82 by -62.