MOSTIC'OLA. 



147 



tail dark brown, the quills all tipped with white and edged with 

 bluish. In summer most, if not all, of the whitish fringes and 

 subterminal bars are cast, and the bird is nearly uniform blue. 



Female. After the autumn moult the upper plumage, together 

 with the wings and tail, resemble the same parts in the male, but 

 are of a very dull blue ; the lower plumage is pale buffy white, 

 each feather subterminally margined with black, the under wing- 

 coverts, axillaries, and under tail-coverts barred with black. In 

 summer most of the whitish fringes and black bars are lost. 



The nestling closely resembles the adult female, but has the 

 white fringes to the feathers broader. 



Iris hazel ; eyelids plumbeous ; bill blackish horn ; mouth yellow ; 

 feet black ; claws dark horn. 



Length about 9-5; tail 3-4; wing 4-9; tarsus 1-2; bill from 

 gape 1*2. 



Distribution. This species, without any admixture of red in the 

 lower plumage, is found in the winter throughout the whole Em- 

 pire. It extends to Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The 

 birds which are found in India and Burma appear to breed in 

 Afghanistan, Kashmir, and probably other parts of the Himalayas, 

 Turkestan, Tibet, and Western China. 



Habits, <$fc. This Rock-Thrush frequents open, and by preference 

 rocky, country, and it is not unfrequently found near buildings. 

 Colonel C. 4L T. Marshall found a nest of this bird at Murree in 

 a low stone wall in June. The eggs are described as pale blue 

 speckled with brownish red, and measured about IT by '75. 



Genus MONTICOLA, Boie, 1822. 



The genus Monticola differs from PetropMla in the proportion 

 between the length of the wing and tail, the former in Monticola 

 being twice the length of the latter. The Thrushes of the two 

 genera are quite alike in habits and in general type of coloration. 



694. Monticola saxatilis. The Hock-Thrush. 



Turdus saxatilis, Linn. Sy&t. Nat. i, p. 294 (17GG). 



Monticola saxatilis (Linn.), Blyth, Cat. p. 165; Blanf. Ibis, 1870, 

 p. 466 ; Hume 8f Hc?iders. Lah. to Turk. p. 100 ; Sadly, S. F. iv, 

 p. 139: Hume, S. F. vii, p. 379; id. Cat. no. 351 ter; Biddulph, 

 Ibis, 1881, p. 53 ; Scully, Ibis, 1881, p. 439 ; Seebohn, Cat. B. M. 

 v, p. 313. 



Orocetes saxatilis (Linn.), Horsf. % M. Cat. l, p. 189. 



Coloration. Male. The entire head and neck blue; back, scapu- 

 lars, lesser wing-coverts, and rump blackish blue; the centre of 

 the back occupied by a large white patch ; lower plumage, upper 

 tail-coverts, and tail chestnut, the middle pair of tail-feathers with 

 their terminal half brown ; median and greater coverts and quills 

 dark brown, the coverts and secondaries narrowly tipped with 



l2 



