TURDIN &. Lis 
Genus, Merula, Leach. 
Bill slightly lengthened, compressed at the tip, and notched 5 
nostrils feathered at the base ; rictal bristles short and strong 5 
tarsus of moderate length ; feet strong ; wings long, second quill 
shorter than the fifth, which is nearly as long as the third and 
fourth ; tail square or nearly so. 
Merula nigropilea, afr. 
959,—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 523; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. III, p. 470 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol, 
IX, p. 399. 
THE BLACK-CAPPED BLACKBIRD. 
Length, 95; wing, 49; tail, 3:5; tarsus, 1°2; bill at front, 0°8. 
Bill orange-yellow, as also are the gape and eyelids; legs 
brownish-yellow. 
Male.-Head, with the lores, cheeks and nape, deep black ; back, 
rump, wings and tail, dark-blackish, tinged with brown on the 
interscapulars ; chin blackish ; neck, all round to the nape (con- 
trasting there strongly with the black of the crown) and the 
lower parts brownish-ashy, paler on the belly, and passing to 
white on the vent ; under tail-coverts mingled white and ashy. 
The Black-capped Blackbird is a permanent resident and 
occurs on the Sahyadri Range as far north as Khandalla, and 
is also common at Mount Aboo, where it is particularly abundant 
during the rains at which season it breeds, but its nest does not 
appear to have been taken, 
Merula atrogularis, Tem. 
965.—Planesticus atrogularis, Gm.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, 
Vol. Lp. 529; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 181. 
THE BLACK-THROATED THRUSH. 
Length, 10°5 ; expanse, 17; wing, 5°75 ; tail, 44; bill at front, 
06. 
Bill yellow, dusky at tip; orbits yellow; irides dark-brown; 
legs horny-yellowish-brown. 
Male.—Above pale cinereous-brown ; wings and tail darker ; 
tail occasionally tinged with rufous ; beneath the throat albescent- 
brownish with some undefined dark markings, the centre of each 
feather being dark, and lower down these coalesce and form a 
broad dark-brown, or blackish pectoral gorget ; the rest, beneath, 
pale cinereous-white, a few of the feathers next the breast centred 
or barred with dusky; under wing-coverts rusty ; lower tail- 
coverts indistinctly barred with brown and rusty. 
The female wants the pectoral gorget, but has the breast 
buff, mixed with dusky, and some brown striz on the sides of 
the throat and breast ; the abdomen, too, is whiter than in the 
male, and the lower tail-coverts are buffy-white. 
