MONTICOLA. 311 



Length. 8-9 inches; wing 4-8 to 5-1 ; tail 3-3 to 3-9; oilmen 0-9 to ro ; 

 tarsus 1*15 to i'2. 



. The hill tracts of Eastern Bengal, Assam, and British Burmah. 

 In Burmah it was procured by Captain Wardl aw- Ramsay in Karin at an ele- 

 vation of 5,000 feet. In Tenasserim Davison got a specimen on the Moolcvil 

 Mountains. 



\ 

 Gen. MontiCOla. Boie. 



This genus is placed by Seebohm in his Cat. B. Br. Mus. after Erithacus. 

 There are certainly links which Mr. Seebohm may have considered sufficient 

 to establish its position, but, taking both the external and internal structure of 

 the group, there can be little doubt that its systematic position is between 

 the Ouzels and the Chats, instead of after the latter. The genus Monlicola is 

 shortly characterized as having, like the Ouzels (males), an unspotted under sur- 

 face ; the bill, too, is long and the tail comparatively short ; and, as Mr. Seebohm 

 puts it, " never as many as four times the length of the oilmen." The bill is 

 long, slender, straight, and moderately hooked at the tip, and either entire or 

 faintly notched ; nostrils apert, plumed at the base ; rictal bristles small and 

 numerous ; wings long, the third quill generally the longest ; tail short and 

 even ; tarsus moderate, I to T2 inches in length. All the Indian species have 

 blue chins and throats and chestnut breasts and abdomen. The females have 

 a barred under surface. 



384. MontiCOla saxatiliS, (Linn.) Boie, Ibis, 1822, p. 522 ; Seebohm, 

 Cat. B. Br. Mus. v. p. 314. Turdus saxatilis, Linn., Syst. Nat. i. p. 294. 

 Petrocossyphus saxatilis, (Linn.) Boie, Ibis, 1826, p. 972. The ROCK THRUSH. 



Entire head and neck cobalt blue ; the upper back and scapulars blue 

 black, lower back white ; the feathers margined with bluish grey ; upper tail 

 coverts and tail chestnut ; the two centre tail feathers brown on the terminal 

 half ; wing coverts and secondaries dark brown with obscure white tips ; under 

 surface of body chestnut. 



The female is uniform brown above ; the under surface is chestnut, barred 

 with dark brown. 



Length. 8-5 to 9 inches; wing 47 to 4-8 ; tail 2-4 to 2-5 ; culmen 0-94 to 

 i ; tarsus i to ri. 



Hab. South Europe, Persia, and Siberia, where it breeds. Migrates to 

 Mongolia and North China, North Africa, and Abyssinia, extending its i 

 eastwards in winter to the borders of India and into North Burmah. Occurs, 

 though not commonly, in Cashmere and Afghanistan ? (Griffiths), and the 

 North-West Himalayas and North Burmah. 



