528 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Thrush of Europe, and the other instituted for the Fieldfare and 

 various Thrushes with the plumage less spotted. 



Gen. Planesticus, Bonap. 



Char. — Bill much as in Turdus, usually pale-colored, and, perhaps, 

 slightly more compressed; 2nd quill sub-equal to the 5tl!, shorter 

 than 3rd and 4th ; outer webs of 3rd, 4th, and 5th quills much 

 emarginate ; toes more unequal, the middle toe more elongate, and 

 the laterals short. 



The group, formerly separated, without a generic name, by Bona- 

 parte, under the title of Turdi erratici, may be said to be interme- 

 diate to the Blackbirds and the true spotted Thrushes. 



They generally have the plumage more colored in masses, 

 but spotted on the breast in a few, and they are said to be more 

 gregarious and migratory than the ttue Thrushes. Gray, in his last 

 list of genera, makes Bonaparte's genus synonymous with Cichlopsis 

 of Cabanis ; but, as he gives Turdus aurantius, Gmelin, from the 

 West Indies as the type, I shall here retain the Prince's name. 



364. Planesticus ruficollis, Pallas. 



Turdus apud Pallas, Zool. Ross. As., pi. — Blyth, Cat. 940 — 

 HoRSF. Cat. 371 — Gould, Birds of Asia, pL 67 — T. erythrurus, 

 Hodgson. 



The Red-tailed Thrush. 



Descr. — Male, above, and the ear-coverts, pale cinereous-brown ; 

 lores dark brown ; eye-streak, fore-neck and breast, under wing- 

 coverts, and tail, deep ferruginous, the tip of the latter and the 

 outer webs of a few of the central feathers, brown ; under-parts, 

 from the breast, white, slightly sullied with pale brown. 



The female has the throat albescent, with rufous lines, and a row 

 of dusky spots on each side ; the eye-streak is "/vhitish ; the ferru- 

 ginous hue of the breast is lighter, and there is more dusky and less 

 rufous on the tail. 



Bill dusky, more or less yellow at the base and gape ; legs pale 

 brown; irides brown. Length 10 inches; wing 5^ ; tail 4; tarsus 1:^^. 



This Thrush has, by some, been considered to be a variety of the 

 next, F. atrogularis ; but it is generally regarded as distinct. It has 



