FOKEIGN BIRDS FOR CAGE AND AVIARY. 



slightly smaller. This bird is a fine songster, and is 

 much valued by the Japanese as a cage-bird (Blakiston 

 and Pryer, Trans. As. Soc. Japan, 1882, p. 165). 



" It leaves Japan in autumn to winter in South China 

 and Hainan. I have been unable to find any evidence 

 in favour of the statement (David and Oustalet, " Ois. 

 Chine," p. 150) that it migrates to the valley of the 

 Amoor in spring." 



This species has been exhibited at the London 

 Zoological Gardens. 



GREY-HEADED BLACKBIRD (Mtrula castanea). 



Male with head, neck, and throat ashy whitish or 

 greyish, the crown dark and brownish ; remainder of 

 plumage light chestnut bay, darker on interscapulars, 

 paler and brighter on under parts ; wings blackish, the 

 tertials, brown-edged, tail blackish, under tail-coverts 

 mingled brown, black and white. Female duller, the 

 head and neck browner, the wings and tail brown, the 

 outermost tail feathers sometimes white-tipped, under 

 tail-coverts brown and white ; bill, orbits and legs 

 yellow ; eyes brown. Habitat, India. 



Jerdon says that he " procured a few specimens of 

 this Ouzel at Darjeeling, in winter only; and it is not 

 very common there, frequenting open forests." (" Birds 

 of India," Vol. I., p. 527.) 



In Gates 's Edition of Hume's " Xests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds," Vol. II., pp. 92-3, we read : " Very little 

 is known of the breeding of the Grey-headed Ouzel. A 

 nest containing five eggs was taken on April 20th near 

 Kotegurh, and Colonel C. H. T. Marshall took a nest at 

 Murree. 



" The Kotegurh nest was placed in a bank, was 6in. 

 in diameter, and 4in. in height, composed of moss, with 

 a good deal of dead fern in the base of the nest, and 

 only a little earth, and lined with fine grass. The cavity 

 was about 3.5in. in diameter, and 2.75in. in depth." 



From Murree Colonel C. H. T. Marshall writes : 

 " Two neste in banks, in the beginning of June ; eggs 

 very similar to those of M. boulboul, but somewhat 

 larger, being 1.25in. by 0.8in. Captain Cock got two 

 nests in the Sindh Valley, Kashmir. It is peculiar that 

 this species always breeds in banks. All the Meruline 

 birds breed from about 5..000ft. to 7,000ft. up. 



" I believe some people say that Merula albocineta 

 and M. castanea are identical. I therefore send a pair 

 of birds of the latter, shot off the nest in full breeding 

 plumage, which may elucidate the matter. They must 

 have two batches in the year, as on the 20th April I 

 got a nest with four eggs just ready to hatch, which 

 must have been laid at the end of March. The nest, 

 too, was at an elevation of nearly 7,000ft.* 



" The eggs of this species appear to vary very much. 

 What I take to be the typical egg is a somewhat 

 lengthened, at times more or less pyriform, oval a 

 pale green ground, with very little gloss, thickly and 

 boldly mottled and freckled all over with brownish red 

 and pinkish purple. In another type nowhere is more 

 than a pin's point of the ground colour visible, the whole 

 (surface being excessively minutely freckled and speckled 

 with brownish red, underlaid by faint reddish purple 

 clouds and stains. 



"In length they vary from l.lin. to 1.35in., and in 

 breadth from 0.75in. to 0.88in. Only eight eggs are 

 measured, five from Kotegurh and three from Sona- 

 nuirgh, taken by Captain Cock." 



This species also has appeared in the London 

 Zoological Gardens. 



*As Blackbirds hatch in about fourteen days it is much more 

 likely that Col. Marshall's eggs were laid in the first week of April. 



So=called Ground=Thrushes (Geodchla}. 



As with some other reputed ground-frequenting birds, 

 these Thrushes appear to pass a great part of their time 

 on trees or in bushes, rarely alighting on the ground 

 excepting to feed. Like the typical Thrushes and 

 Blackbirds they s'hould have soft food, fruit and insects, 

 spiders and worms. 



ORANGE-HEADED GROUND-THRUSH (Geodchla citrina). 



Head, neck, and under parts pale brownish orange ; 

 chin and throat paler, somewhat whitish ; remainder of 

 upper surface bluish grey ; a small white spot on the 

 median wing-coverts ; primary coverts with black tips ; 

 abdomen becoming paler towards vent, the latter and 

 under tail-coverts white ; bill blackish horn colour; eyes, 

 dark brown ; feet brownish fawn coloured. Female 

 duller, the back, wings, and tail tinged with olivaceous. 

 Habitat " Throughout the whole range of the Himalaya.-, 

 not exceeding an elevation of from 4,000ft. to 5,000ft. 

 It is also found in most of the forests and well-wooded 

 districts of Northern and Central India, extending rarely 

 as low as North latitude 10 deg. I procured it from 

 the jungles of the Eastern Ghats, inhabiting the same 

 locality as the last species (G. ci/aiiniintits), though much 

 more rare. It has also been obtained in Goomsoor, in 

 the neighbourhood of Calcutta, where quite common in 

 the cold season, and in the forests of Central India. 1 

 procured specimens in Sikkim, but only in the warmer 

 valleys. It extends through Assam and Burmah. 



" The Orange-headed Thrush keeps to woods and 

 shady gardens; and, like the last, prefers bamboo- 

 jungle. It feeds on the ground on insects, turning over 

 the leaves to find them; and, as remarked by Blyth, 

 often having its bill clogged with mud, from feeding in 

 damp spots. It is shy and silent in general; but, 

 during the breeding season, the male has a pretty song. 

 Button found the nest at Mussooree in the forks of high 

 trees, made of grasses, moss, stalks, and roots ; and with 

 three or four eggs, pale greenis'^, freckled with rufous 

 tormung a sort of patch at the upper end." (Jerdon 

 " Birds of Indda," Vol. I., p. 518). 



In Oates's edition of Hume's " Nests and Eggs of 

 Indian Birds " we read : " The Orange-headed Ground 

 Inrush breeds in the Himalayas from Murree to Assam 

 at elevations of from 1,500ft. to 5.000ft., laying from 

 the end of April to nearly the end of June. They build 

 a rather broad, cup-shaped nest of moss, grass and 

 very fine twigs, or fir-needles, lined with fine moss roots, 

 and at times a little hair, measuring some Sin in 

 diameter, and with a cavity about 3.5in. broad anc? 

 1.75m. deep. The nest is placed in some fork of a 

 moderate-sized tree, in the case of all that I have seen, 

 at no great height from the ground. 



" They lay three, and often four eggs, and one nest 

 found below Kotegurh contained five. 



" Mr. R. Thompson, writing from Kumaon, says : 

 I have never found this bird except at 1,500ft. to 2,000ft. 

 elevation at most. It arrives in our forests at the begin- 

 ning of April, when the males begin to utter their 

 sweet yet loud notes, and commence breeding operation* 



"From Murree, Colonel C. H. T. Marshall tells us 

 that this species builds a;bout the beginning of June in 

 the fork of a low tree about 6ft. up. Lays three eggs, 

 pale greenish white, finely speckled with rufous-brown, 

 forming a patch at the larger end lin. in length, 

 O.Bin. in breadth. 



"A nest _sent me by Mr. Mandelli. which was placed 

 in a fork in a bamboo cluster at about 5ft. from the 

 ground, is a very loose, untidy nest, composed ex- 

 teriorly of dead lea.ves, bamboo spathes, a few twigs 

 and pieces of decayed bamboo, all wound together with 

 vegetable fibre. The whole of the nest is composed of 



