CINCLUS. 55 



These birds are generally known as Whistling Thrushes. They are birds of 

 fairly large size, black plumage, glossed or enamelled with blue, and their 

 bills are either yellow or black. They have a range from Turkestan to 

 Afghanistan and the whole of India and Ceylon, throughout the Burmese 

 countries and China. According to Sharpe apparently absent in the Malayan 

 Peninsula, but re-occurs in Java and Sumatra. 



481. Myiophoneus Temmincki, Vigors, P. Z. S. 1831, p. 171 ; 



Gould, Cent. Him. B. PI. 21 ; Tern. PL Col. ii. livr. 29; Blyth, J. A. S. 

 B. xvi. p. 154; Bp. Consp. i. p. 258; Jerd., B. Ind. i. p. 500; Hume and 

 Hend., Lahore to Yarkand, p. 187 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, Ind. B. p. 221 ; 

 Hume and Oates, Str. F. 1874, p. 105; Hume, Str. F. 1874, p. 331 ; Bl. 

 and Wald. B. Burm. p. 98 ; Godw.-Aust., J. A. S. B. xlv. p. 72 ; Hume, Str. 

 F. 1877, p. 30 ; id. andDav., Str. F. 1878, p. 236 ; Hume, Str. F. 1879^. 93 ; 

 Scully, t. c. p. 281 ; Biddulph, Ibis, 1881, p. 52 ; C. Swinhoe, t. c. p. 105 ; Oates, 

 B. Br. Burm. i. p. 18. The HIMALAYAN WHISTLING THRUSH. 



PLATE, figs. 1,2, 3. 



Above blue black, each feather tipped with glistening bright or glossy blue ; 

 lower back and rump rather ashy black, the feathers with concealed white 

 shaft streaks ; lesser wing coverts brilliant purplish blue, forming a shoulder 

 spot ; remainder of wing coverts black, washed with blue on the outer webs, 

 the median coverts tipped with ivhite ; quills blackish, margined on their outer 

 web with purplish blue ; tail feathers the same ; base of forehead and lores 

 black ; forepart of crown with a band of bright purplish blue ; sides of face 

 and ear coverts black, very narrowly streaked with silvery grey ; under surface 

 of body purplish black, the feathers mesially tipped with a spot of silvery 

 grey ; abdomen, thighs, vent and under tail coverts purplish black ; under 

 wing coverts and axillaries dingy black, slightly washed with purplish blue. 

 Bill dull yellow ; the culmen and the base of the upper mandible- blackish ; 

 feet black ; irides rich brown. 



Length. 12 to 13-5 inches; wing 6-8 to 7; tail 5-5 to 6-4; culmen 1-4; 

 from gape 1*5 5 ; tarsus 1*9. 



The young are uniform dull blue black above and below, and want the 

 glistening spots, and the white spots on the wing coverts. 



Hab. Turkestan, Afghanistan, throughout the whole of the Himalayas from 

 Cashmere to Bhootan, extending to Siam and the Arrakan and Karen hills, in 

 Burmah as far south as Thayetmyo. It is recorded by Sharpe (Br. Mus. 

 Cat.*) from Kandahar, Afghanistan, Peshawur, Cashmere, N.-W. Himalayas, 

 Kumaon, Nepaul, Darjeeling, Upper Assam, Bhootan, and the Arrakan hills ; 

 and, according to Oates, the spurs of the latter nearly down to the Irrawaddy. 

 Capt. Wardlaw- Ramsay procured it in the Karen hills. It is said to be resident 

 wherever it occurs. Hume says it breeds throughout the Himalayas from Assam 

 to Afghanistan in shady ravines and wooded glens from an elevation of 2,000 to 



