BLUE-THROATED REDSTART. 125 



also, that our present bird may one day ere long 

 be removed to a sub-genus, standing near to 

 Phoenicura. In the male, the " crown of the 

 head is umber-brown ; feathers at the base of the 

 bill, and eye streak, yellowish-white; upper 

 plumage hair-brown, tinged with gray, with the 

 margin of the wing-coverts and scapulars paler ; 

 chin, throat, and upper part of the breast, rich 

 azure blue, with a central spot of silky white ; 

 the lower margin of the blue being bounded by a 

 narrow gorget of black, which is succeeded by 

 another of reddish-brown ; abdomen, and under 

 tail coverts, dirty white, or inclining to smoky 

 gray ; tail, with two middle feathers, hair-brown ; 

 the rest having the basal half orange-brown." * 



The female has the chin and throat white, 

 surrounded with deep brownish black, each fea- 

 ther having a pale margin ; a streak of azure 

 extends from each side of the lower angle of the 

 maxilla, and the upper part of the breast has the 

 Crescent of azure bounded beneath with blackish 

 brown, and a slight tinge of reddish. 



In a specimen having the rufous patch on the 

 breast, the auriculars are tinted with rufous, 

 and above the eye streak there is another of dark 

 umber-brown ; the dark parts of the tail are deep 

 brownish black. 



The genera Philomela and Curruca, as we 

 previously observed, are very closely allied to 

 each other, both are woodland in their habits, 

 * Selby, i. p. 196. 



