CALLENE. 57 



483. Myiophoneus horsfieldi, Vig. P. Z. S. 1831, p. 35; Tem 



PI. Col. livr. 29 ; Gould, Cent. Him. B. pi. 20 ; Jerd., B. Ind. i. p. 499 ; Ball, 

 Sir. F. 1874, p. 406 ; id., 1875, p. 292 ; Butler, t. c. p. 469; Fairbank, Sir. F. 

 1876, p. 257; JSourd., t. c. p. 398; Ftiirbank, Sir. F. 1877, p. 403; Dav. 

 and Wenden, Str. F. 1878, ii. p. 81 ; Hume, t. c. p. 150; J5all t t. c. p. 467; 

 Butler, t. c. p. 467 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. vii. p. 10. Arrenga horsfieldi, 

 Bp. Consp. i. p. 258. HORSFIELD'S or the SOUTHERN INDIAN WHISTLING 

 THRUSH. 



Base of forehead with a bright blue band, rest of the head, neck and mantle 

 jet black, without any blue shade ; lower back, rump and upper tail coverts 

 ultramarine blue ; wing coverts the same, the least series brighter and more 

 cobalt, forming a shoulder spot ; under surface of the body jet black ; the feathers 

 of the breast and abdomen broadly margined with bright ultramarine, and the 

 flanks as well as the thighs, under tail coverts, under wing coverts and 

 axillaries washed with the same ; quills black^ externally margined with ultra- 

 marine blue ; tail dark blue. Bill black ; legs brown black ; irides dark brown. 



Length. io'6 to 12 inches ; wing 5-5 to 6'l6 ; tail 4-6; culmen 1-25. 



Hab. Central and Southern India. According to Jerdon it is found through- 

 out all the forests of Southern and Western India from near the top of the 

 Neilgherries to almost the level of the sea. It is not found on the plateau of 

 the Neilgherries, but is abundant at Coonoor and Kotagherry. In Coorg and 

 the Wynaad it is common at moderate elevations. It has been obtained in 

 Malabar, also in the Pulney Hills and Travancore. Its song, Jerdon says, 

 consists of four or five beautifully clear whistling notes, so like the whistle of a 

 man or a boy as to be constantly mistaken for it- Its habits are quite those of its 

 congeners. Its nesting, too, is not peculiar. Hume describes the eggs he 

 received from Kotagherry and other places as broad, nearly regular ovals, 

 slightly compressed towards the lesser end ; considerably elongated and more 

 or less spherical and pyriform varieties occur. Ground colour salmon pink 

 or pinkish white, the whole finely speckled, splashed and spotted with pinkish 

 brown or brownish pink, more dense at the large end, where they form an ill- 

 defined cap. Length ri to 1-35 inches ; breadth O'88to T02 inches. A closely 

 allied species, M. cyaneus, is found in Java, and another, M. blighi, is known 

 from Ceylon. 



Gen. Callene. Biyth. 



Bill more slender than in Myiophoneus, shorter than the head, and straight ; 

 the lower gonys slightly ascending; wings and tail rounded; 4th, 5th, and 6th 

 quills equal and longest, the wing falling short of the tail by as much or more 

 than the length of the tarsus ; legs and feet slender ; first primary more than 

 half the length of the second. 



