l8 ROCK-THRUSH. 



the Carpathians eastward it breeds in Greece, Turkey, Southern 

 Russia, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, Southern Siberia, MongoHa, 

 and North China ; its migrations extending to the Gambia on the 

 west coast of Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and Southern Arabia ; 

 also to Tibet, Northern India, and Upper Burma. 



The nest is placed in a hole among rocks, vineyard-walls, forti- 

 fications or ruins, and occasionally in a tree-stump. Moss, roots, 

 and dried grass — without any clay — with a finer lining of bents, are 

 the materials employed ; and the 4-5 eggs are pale greenish-blue, 

 sometimes slightly speckled with light brown : measurements i in. 

 by 75 in. Two broods are often reared in the year, incubation com- 

 mencing early in May ; and the parents display considerable anxiety 

 when the nest is approached. The Rock-Thrush has a sweet and 

 varied song, and, being also an excellent mimic, is highly esteemed 

 as a cage-bird. During courtship the male from time to time rises 

 singing into the air, then drops down almost vertically, and travels 

 for some distance along the rocks. In fact all the Rock-Thrushes 

 in their mode of nesting and in many of their actions resemble the 

 Wheatears or Chats, thus forming a link between these and the true 

 Thrushes, from which they differ in the comparative shortness of the 

 leg and tail. The food consists of earth-worms, snails, insects and 

 their larvce, and wild berries. 



The adult male has the head, neck, and throat greyish blue, 

 passing into blackish-blue on the upper back ; a white patch covers 

 the centre of the back and dorsal scapulars ; wings dark brown ; 

 lower back bluish-slate, mottled with grey ; tail-feathers chestnut, 

 the two centre ones chiefly brown ; under parts bright chestnut ; 

 bill black ; legs and feet brown. Length 7*5 in.; wing to end of 

 the third and longest primary 475 in., the bastard primary being 

 very small. In winter the white patch is less conspicuous, and the 

 feathers have lighter margins. The young male, late in September, 

 is much mottled with light brown and slate-grey on the upper parts, 

 and has no white patch on the back ; wing-feathers and coverts 

 broadly tipped with buffish-white ; breast and abdomen chestnut, 

 barred with black, and with broad whitish edges which gradually 

 wear off The female is mottled ash-brown above, with but little grey 

 about the head and back ; chin and throat whitish ; lower parts 

 orange-buff marbled with brown ; tail chestnut. 



The Blue Rock-Thrush {MoiUicoIa cyaiius) has been erroneously 

 recorded as having occurred at Westmeath in Ireland ; for complete 

 refutation of the statement, see 'The Zoologist,' 1880, p. 67. 



