( 556 ) 



This new species resembles most G. erythronota from Celebes, but its entirely 

 black head and the ochraceous colour on the sides of the body distinguish it at a 

 glance. The adult male has the top of the head from the base of the bill to the 

 hind-neck pure black, the entire back deep chestnut, lighter and more ochraceous 

 on the rump and upper tail-coverts. The remiges are black, with the usual 

 Geocichline wing-pattern,* of pure white colour, beginning on the fifth primary 

 and reaching all over the secondaries. Most of the median and some of the greater 

 upper wing-coverts have large white tips. The under wing-coverts are black and 

 white. The tail is black, the outermost tail-feather on each side with a white 

 longitudinal spot on the tip of the inner web, varying in size. Lores, feathers 

 round the eyes, chin, cheeks, and ear-coverts white, the feathers of the chin and 

 cheeks with narrow blackish tips, and some black feathers forming a spot 

 immediately above and below the middle of the eye. Feathers of the throat black 

 with white bases. Middle of the breast and abdomen and under tail-coverts 

 white. Sides of the body pale ochraceous, all the feathers whitish towards the 

 base and with very large black tips. Thighs white, with some dusky spots behind. 

 " Iris brown : feet whitish ; beak black, with pale base to the mandible " (W. 

 Doherty). Wing 105 ; tail 73 74 mm. ? like the male, but the wing only 

 about 100, the tail only about 69 70 mm. 



The young birds are of a darker chestnut above, with paler shaftlines to the 

 feathers, the feathers of the top of the head black, with longitudinal chestnut spots 

 before the tip, the white everywhere more or less washed with a pale ochraceous 

 rust-colour, the underparts all over washed with ochraceous, the breast like the 

 abdomen and with very little black, the feathers of the sides of the body with 

 smaller black spots, or only with broad black fringes. 



This species was found in Lombok at elevations of from about 2000 to 5000 

 feet, where there were a good many young birds, and some of the old ones moulting' 

 It was also found in the hills of Samba wa. 



I have adopted for this bird the generic term Geocichla, as has been 

 done almost universally among ornithologists since Seebohm's Monograph 

 of the Turdidae in the fifth volume of the Catalogue of Birds ; but I must 

 confess that I do not believe that in future time his arrangements of the 

 three genera Turdus, Merula, and Geocichla can be upheld. There seems 

 to be a complete connection of Turdus and Merula, and there is hardly a 

 character given to distinguish Geocichla, except the coloration of the wings, and 

 that is almost the same in " Turdus" viscivorus and similarly indicated in 

 T. mustelinus. Unless, therefore, we can find some structural generic characters 

 to separate the Geocichlae, or at least some of them, I am afraid there is no 

 scientific reason to recognise the genus Geocichla. 



5. Geocichla interpres (Ternm.). 



An adult male and a young bird were shot in Lombok, at about 2000 feet, in 

 June 1896. Wallace had collected it long ago in Lombok. The head of the adult 

 bird is dark chestnut, the back slaty grey. " Iris dark brown ; feet pale yellowish; 

 beak black " (W. Doherty). The young bird has the feathers on the top of the 

 head slaty black, shafts pale, tips rufous chestnut, those of the back similar. 

 The breast is not black as in the old bird, but rusty rufous with black tips to the 



* See Seebohm, Cat. B. Brit, Mus. V. p. 147. 



