THE GROUND-THRUSHES. 245 



a ground-bird, searching for its food in humid situations, 

 among the dead leaves under the trees and shrubs. Its 

 golden-spangled plumage serves to conceal it, and it seems to 

 frequent in England, when it occurs, similar situations to those 

 it affects in its native home. Its food consists, as with most 

 other Thrushes, of worms and grubs, spiders and snails, and as 

 it is not a noisy species, it may easily be overlooked. In autumn 

 it feeds also on berries. Whether it has a song has never been 

 yet recorded, but such is doubtless the case. 



Nest. — The only authentic nest of White's Thrush yet recorded 

 was obtained near Ningpo,in China, by the late Consul Swinhoe, 

 and is now in Mr. Seebohm's collection. He describes it as 

 follows : " It was built on a fork of a horizontal pine-branch, 

 and is about 2^ inches deep inside, and about 4 inches deep 

 outside, 7 inches in outer and 4^ inches in inner diameter. 

 The outside is composed of withered rushes, fine and coarse 

 grass and moss, with an occasional twig and withered leaf, and 

 plastered most copiously with mud. Here and there are a few 

 pieces of some green wood, apparently conveyed in the mud 

 from the swamps. The inside is lined with a thick coating of 

 mud like the nests of our own Ring-Ouzel or Blackbird ; and 

 is then finally lined with fibrous rootlets, quite as coarse as 

 those which the Magpie uses, and one or two pieces of sedgy 

 grass. In general appearance the nest resembles most closely 

 that of a Common Magpie without the sticks — just the mere 

 cup, and is far more coarsely made than the nests of the true 

 Thrushes." 



Eggs. — These, according to Mr. Seebohm, are greenish-white, 

 with minute reddish spots. They most resemble those of the 

 Mistle Thrush, but the ground-colour is slightly paler, and 

 the spots much finer, more numerous, and more evenly dis- 

 tributed. They measure i'a inch in length and 0*9 inch in 

 breadth. 



THE GROUND-THRUSHES. GENUS GEOCICHLA. 

 Geocichla, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 174. 

 Type, G. rubecula (Gould). 

 The members of this genus are birds of somewhat varie- 



