WHITH’S GROUND-THRUSH. 203 
struck me as being of an allied species, probably the Oreocincla. I went 
back to the tree; and on the bough where the nest had been were the 
parent birds in trouble at their loss. I saw them distinctly, and recognized 
them as being of this species.” 
This nest, with two of the eggs, is now in my collection. It was built 
on a fork on a horizontal pine-branch, and is about 24 inches deep inside, 
and about 4 inches outside, 7 inches in outer and 43 inches in inner dia- 
meter. 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 weed, 
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 Black- 
bird ; and is then finally lined with fibrous rootlets, quite as coarse as those 
the Magpie uses, and one or two pieces of sedgy grass. In general ap- 
pearance the nest resembles most closely a common Magpie’s without the 
sticks—just the mere cup, and is far more coarsely made than the nests of 
the true Thrushes. The eggs, greenish white with minute reddish spots, 
were three, although most probably the full number had not been laid. 
They resemble those of the Missel-Thrush ; but the ground-colour is slightly 
paler, and the spots much finer, more numerous, and more evenly distri- 
buted. They measure 1:2 inch in length and 0°9 inch in breadth. 
The whole upper plumage of White’s Thrush, which is ochraceous brown, 
and the under plumage, which is white, tinged with buff on the breast, is 
boldly marked with black crescentic spots. The wings are brown, margined 
with buff; and the wing-coverts also are tipped with the same colour. The 
tail, which is composed of fourteen feathers, has the four central ones 
ochraceous brown, the rest dark brown, all more or less broadly tipped with 
white. Bull brown above, pale below. Legs and feet yellowish brown. 
Irides dark brown. The sexes are presumably the same. 
White’s Thrush has many very near allies ; but most of them may at 
once be distinguished by having only twelve tail-feathers. Two, however, 
have fourteen tail-feathers: one (Geocichla hancii) is simply a greyer- 
coloured bird, which may be regarded as little more than a local race 
that has apparently become a resident in the island of Formosa; the 
other is an unquestionably good species (Geocichla horsfieldi), which is a 
resident in the island of Java. In this species the general colour of the 
upper parts is ochraceous brown instead of olive-brown, and the pale 
ochraceous brown subterminal spots, which are found in White’s Thrush 
on the feathers of both the head and back, are confined to the head only, 
The wing, probably in consequence of its having ceased to migrate, has 
become rounder, the second primary being intermediate in length between 
the fifth and sixth, instead of between the fourth and fifth. 
