170 TURDIN^E. 



Bill black ; irides brown ; legs black. 



Male throughout of a dull indigo-blue, more or less marked with 

 dusky, and the feathers of the abdomen, vent, and under tail- 

 coverts, pale tipped, in some specimens with a tinge of deep 

 ferruginous on the feathers of these parts. 



The female is dingy greyish-brown, with a faint blue or ashy 

 tinge, greyish on the tail; some of the feathers edged with 

 whitish, and the under parts fulvescent-greyish, with dusky cross 

 bands, some being rufescent on the lower parts, especially on the 

 vent and under tail-coverts. 



The Blue Rock Thrush is a common winter visitant throughout 

 the region, arriving during October and leaving about April ; it is 

 very solitary in its habits, and appears to frequent the same loca- 

 lity, not only throughout the season, but for several successive 

 ones Jerdon records that " it is supposed to be the sparrow of 

 our English version of the Scriptures that sitteth alone on the 

 house tops." 



Monticola cinclorhynchus, Fig. 



353. Orocetes cinclorhynchus, Vig. Jerdon's Birds of India, 

 Vol. I, p. 515 ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 

 470 ; Petrophila cinclorhynchus, Vig. ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 

 Vol. IX, p. 398 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 130 ; 

 Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 67. 



THE BLUE-HEADED CHAT THEUSH. 



Length, 7'5 ; expanse, 11'5; wing, 3'8 to 42; tail, 2*8; tarsus, 

 0'85 ; bill at front, 0*6 ; bill from gape, 1-1. 



Bill brownish-black ; irides hazel-brown ; legs plumbeous. 



Male. Head, nape, and shoulders of the wings, pale-blue ; lores, 

 ear-coverts, back and wings, black, tinged with dusky-blue on 

 the back, and on some of the wing-coverts and quills ; a white 

 wing spot, formed by a white bar on the outer webs of the 

 secondaries ; rump and upper tail-coverts ferruginous ; tail black, 

 edged with blue ; chin pale-blue ; breast, abdomen, and under tail- 

 coverts ferruginous. 



Female. Brownish-olive above, yellowish- white beneath, tinged 

 with rufous on the breast, and barred crosswise with olive-brown. 



During the cold weather the Blue-headed Chat Thrush is 

 generally distributed throughout the region, but occurs much more 

 rarely in Sind. It is solitary in its habits. 



GENUS, Geocichla, Kuhl. 



Bill moderate, stout, compressed, straight ; culmen gently arched 

 throughout, tolerably hooked at the tip, and slightly notched ; 

 nostrils lengthened ; a small nude spot behind the eye ; wings and 

 tail moderate, or rather short ; tarsus slightly lengthened ; lateral 

 toes short, nearly equal. 



