MEUULIN^. 525 



Neilgherries, coming to the skirts of the woods occasionally, and 

 not unfrequently entering gardens. It feeds on Snails, Glow-worms, 

 caterpillars, and other soft insects, but also lives a good deal on fruit, 

 especially on the hill gooseberry {PhysoUs peruviana)^ now 

 so perfectly acclimatized there. Its charming song, so like that of 

 its European congener, is familiar to residents at Ootacamund ; 

 and, during the spring, is perhaps more heard in cloudy weather, 

 and during slight rain, or towards an evening, than in bright sun- 

 shiny days. I have frequently found the nest, ' made of roots 

 and moss, usually with four eggs, pale blue with dusky-brown 

 spots. 



361. Merula boulboul, Lath. 



Lanius apud Latham* — Blyth, Cat. 947 — Horsf., Cat. 

 275 — Turdus poecilopterus, Vigors — Gould, Cent. Him. Birds, 

 pi. 14 — Kasturi, H. — Fatariya Masaicha, Beng. — Phoyiong-pho, 

 Lepch. — Chomam, Bhot. 



The Grey-wingkd Blackbird. 



Descr. — Male, above black, with a large wing-spot, formed by 

 the outer webs of the middle quills, and the greater wing-coverts, 

 pale silvery ashy-grey ; beneath somewhat paler black, tending to 

 dusky-ashy. 



The female is brownish-ashy, paler beneath, and the wing-spot 

 rufescent-whitish. The young, as usual, are spotted with pale 

 rufeseent ; and in some very old birds the wing-spot becomes 

 almost white. 



Bill, orbits, and legs, deep yellow. Length 10| inches ; wing 

 5| ; tail 4 ; bill at front | ; tarsus \\. 



The Grey-winged Blackbird is found throughout the whole ex- 

 tent of the Himalayas, keeping generally to an elevation from 

 5,000 to 8,000 feet. It is tolerably common, but rather shy, and 

 does not show itself in the open, or in gardens, so much as the 

 Neilgherry Blackbird ; and its song is, I think, hardly equal to 

 that of the Neilgherry bird. I obtained the nest at Darjeeling, 

 made of twigs, roots, and moss, and with three or four eggs of a 



* Bonaparte does not allow Latham's name to be applicable to this species, but 

 appropriates it to an African Dryoscopus, and retains Vigors's name. 



