ROCK-THRUSH. 



China ; its migrations extending to the Gambia on the west coast of 

 Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and the south of Arabia ; also to 

 Thibet, Northern India, and Upper Burma. 



The nest is placed in a hole among rocks, vineyard-walls, forti- 

 fications or ruins, and occasionally in a tree-stump. Moss, roots, 

 and dried grass— without any clay — with a finer lining of bents, are 

 the materials employed ; and the eggs, 4-5, are pale greenish-blue, 

 sometimes slightly specked with light brown : average measurements 

 I in. by 75 in. Two broods are often reared in the year, incubation 

 commencing in May ; and the parents display considerable anxiety 

 when the nest is approached. The Rock-Thrush has a sweet and 

 varied song, and being also an excellent mimic, it is highly esteemed 

 as a cage-bird. During courtship the male firom time to time rises 

 singing into the air ; then drops down almost vertically, and travels 

 for some distance along the rocks. In fact all the Rock-Thrushes 

 in their mode of nesting and in many of their actions resemble the 

 Wheatears or Chats, thus forming a link with the true Thrushes, 

 from which they differ in the comparative shortness of the legs and 

 tails. The food consists of earth-worms, snails, insects and their 

 larvse, and wild berries. 



Adult male: head, neck, and throat greyish-blue, passing into 

 blackish-blue on the upper back ; a. white patch covers the centre 

 of the back and dorsal scapulars ; wings dark brown ; lower back 

 bluish-slate, mottled with grey ; tail-feathers chestnut, the two centre 

 ones brown ; under parts bright chestnut ; bill black ; legs and 

 feet brown. Length. 7 -5 in.; wing to end of the 3rd and longest 

 primary 4-75 in., the bastard primary being very small. In winter 

 the white patch is less conspicuous, and the feathers have lighter 

 margins. The young male, late in September, is much mottled with 

 light brown and slate-grey on the upper parts ; no white patch on 

 the back; wing-feathers and coverts broadly tipped with buffish- 

 white ; breast and abdomen chestnut barred with black, and with 

 broad whitish edges which gradually wear off. 



Female : spotted brown above, with but little grey about the head 

 and back ; chin and throat whitish ; lower parts orange-bufif marbled 

 with brown ; tail chestnut. 



The Blue Rock-Thrush {Mo?iticoIa cyanus) was erroneously re- 

 corded by Mr. Blake-Knox as having occurred at Westmeath in 

 Ireland : for complete refutation of the statement, see ' The Zoolo- 

 gist,' 1880, p. 67. 



