THE BIRDS OF BANGKOK. 189 



towards evening. The .Nfagpie-Uoliin is also one of tlie fir.st bird.s to 

 commenoe calling in the nioi-ning, and 1 have, on many occasions, heai'<l 

 it utter a few notes well on in the night. For the rest, it spends much 

 of its time on the ground, wiiere it feeds on insects, and has a liabit of 

 taking a short run, every now and then, at tlie end of which, as well as 

 when aligliting on a perch, it elevates its tail perpendicularl\\ 



])in(rib(ttiofi. To be found tliroughout the country in, and near, 

 towns, villages and human habitations. 1 have not met with the bird 

 in heavy forest — its natural habitat being light jangle or garden land. 

 It would thus be absent aUo from treeless plains. 



■13 ((Ji)2). Petrophilasolitaria (P.L.S. Mali.). The Eastern 

 Blue Hock- Thrush. 



/'itio/i/iilii .■'ol/'ttin/i, {{uliinson ami Kluss, Ibis 1911, ]>. 61-. 

 Mdiilicdld ftdtitaiiKx /ihili/ipfiif^i--: Uvlili'ustulpe, tlomii. N. U.S. Siani 

 1. p. 170 : Rdbhiscin, Ibis 1915, p. 752 , GyMeiistoIpe 1916, p. 48. 



Desrriptimi. Length about 2-11 mm. ( 9.5 in. ). Adult inale. 

 \\ hull' up])pr plumage, with neck and breast, dnil blue, ]ialer on tlie 

 throat, lower back and upper tail-coverts — most of the feathers being 

 tip])ed whitish and with a subterniinal black bar ; quills and tail 

 blackish, edged with bluish and with each feather very nai-rowly tipped 

 whitish ; vent, under tail-eoverts, axillarie.s and under wing-coverts 

 chestnut, the same colour sometimes extending to the abdomen. Fi'- 

 male and immatare male. Whole upper plumage ver}' dull blue, most 

 of the feathers being edged whitish and witli a black subterniinal bar, 

 as in the adult male : quills ami tail dark brown, edged with dull bluish 

 and tipped whitish ; whole lower plumage and the sides of the head and 

 neck pale buffy white, each feather subterminall}" edged with black ; 

 )inder wing-coverts, axillaries and under tail-coverts suffused with 

 rufous and irregularly barred with black. h\ the immature male the 

 abdomen is also sometimes more or less rufous. 



In both eexes the whitish tips and subterininal bars to the 

 f.-athers become abraded towards the end of winter, and the plumage 

 becomes more uniform in appearance. Further, according to Oates 

 ( Fauna, Brit.i.ili Tudin, Birds 11, p. ll(J ), the amount of chestnut on 

 the lower parts varies, being generally present on the under tail- 

 coverts, and only in a feiv cases extemling to the abdomen (Vand under 

 wing-coverts) in varying quantities. He adds that birds in typical 



VOL. II. \i.\v i;iir. 



