96 



678. Merula unicolor (Tick.). TicMVs Ouzel. 



Geocichla unicolor ( Tick.), Jerd. B. Ind. i. p. 519 ; Hume, Rouyh 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 356. 



I have never found a nest of Tickell's Ouzel ; Capt. Hutton 

 says : " This bird arrives in the hills up to 7000 feet, and probably 

 higher, about the end of March, the first being heard (in the year 

 1848) on the 26th of that month, at 5000 feet. Every morning 

 and evening it may be heard far and near, pouring forth a short 

 but pleasing song from the very summits of the forest trees. It 

 is a summer visitor only, returning to the plains in early autumn. 

 It breeds in May and June, laying three or four eggs of a dull 

 greenish white-freckled colour, blotched and spotted with rufous, 

 sometimes closely, sometimes widely distributed. 



" The nest is neatly made of green moss and roots lined with 

 finer roots, and placed usually against the trunk of the tree at a 

 place whence spring one or two twigs ; sometimes it is placed upon 

 the broad surface of a thick horizontal branch or on a projecting 

 knob. The diameter of the eggs is 1*06 by 0'8 inch, varying a 

 little ; shape sometimes ordinary oval, at others more rounded at 

 the smaller end." 



Dr. Leith Adams tells us that this "is the regular Song-Thrush 

 of the valley of Cashmere, and is heard in every garden and grove 

 during the breeding-season ; its song resembles the Blackbird's ; 

 builds its nest in vineyards and in poplar trees around the villages ; 

 seen on the ranges around the valley, but not on the lesser ranges 

 near the plains of the Punjab." 



Mr. Brooks tells me that he obtained a nest in a pollard willow 

 at Karnoo near Srinugger (Cashmere) on the 12th June. 



From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall reports " several 

 nests in June, made of moss and fern-stalks, lined with root-fibres. 

 Eggs somewhat resembling those of M. boulboul, only smaller, 

 rounder, and more lightly speckled. They are the same size as 

 those of C. cyanus" 



Colonel Gr. E. L. Marshall writes : " This is one of the com- 

 monest breeders at Naini Tal ; I found two fresh eggs on the 16th 

 May, and four fresh eggs on the 5th June, and many other nests. 

 The nests are miniatures of the English Blackbirds' both as to 

 structure and position, except that the cup is deeper and more 

 moss is used in the construction. The nests found at Nairn Tal 

 are far smaller than those I have received from Murree as also are 

 the eggs. The birds are very shy, and though I have always 

 succeeded in obtaining the hen bird, 1 have only once seen a cock 

 bird." 



He gave me also a more extended account * of the nest found 

 on the 16th May which I reproduce : " I found this nest on the 



* This note appeared in the ' Eough Draft ' under the head of Geocichla 

 dissimilis, Bl. (no. 358). It must undoubtedly refer to M. unicolor, as since 

 noted by Mr. Hume (S. F. ix, p. 107). ED. 



