172 TURDIN^E. 



THE DUSKY GROUND THRUSH. 



Length, 9 ; expanse, 14'5;wing, 4'5 ; tail, 313; tarsus, 1 '12 ; 

 bill at front, 07. 



Bill dusky-yellow ; eyelids and gape yellow ; irides brown ; 

 legs yellowish-brown. 



Male above uniform dusky slaty ash-color ; chin nearly white ; 

 throat pale-ashy; breast ashy; abdomen and lower tail-coverts 

 white ; under wing-coverts and flanks of abdomen ferruginous. 



The female is olive-brown above, ashy about the rump ; ear- 

 coverts ashy-brown, with light shafts ; beneath the chin and throat 

 albescent or very pale-ashy, bordered by a dark stripe from the base 

 of the lower mandible, and the feathers of the throat and neck 

 streaked with dusky-brown ; the breast and sides ashy-brown, 

 tinged with fulvous, or olive-brown on the flanks ; belly, vent, 

 and lower tail-coverts, white. 



Occurs throughout the district as a rather rare cold weather 

 visitant. 



GENUS, Turdulus, Hodgson. 



Bill rather short, something like that of Geocichla, generally 

 yellow ; tarsus rather short. Males colored black, and white ; 

 females dingy-olive or brown. Otherwise as in Merula. 



Turdulus wardi, Jerd. 



357. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. I, p. 520 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. Ill, p. 399. 



WARD'S PIED BLACKBIRD. 



Length, 8*5 to 9 ; wing, 4*6 ; tail, 3*4; tarsus, 1*2; bill at front, 

 075. 



Bill yellow ; irides brown ; legs yellow. 



Male, above with the whole . head and neck, black ; eye-streak, 

 a patch on the shoulders of the wings, tips of all the coverts, 

 especially the medial -co verts white ; tertiaries and secondaries 

 also tipped white, the latter slightly, and the primaries narrowly 

 edged with the same ; upper tail-coverts also tipped ; tail with 

 the central tail-feathers slightly white tipped, the rest of the 

 feathers successively more broadly so, but chiefly on the inner 

 webs, and increasing in amount to the outermost, which has 

 the inner web white for two-thirds of its length ; the web black 

 nearly to the tip. 



The female is pale-brownish above ; the eye-streak, tips of the 

 wing-coverts and of the tertiaries, fulvous-white ; upper tail- 

 coverts and tips of the tail-feathers, whitish ; beneath fulvous- 

 white, variegated with dusky ; under tail-coverts pure white ; 

 the feathers of the throat, breast and flanks, with dusky spots ; 

 axillaries pure white. 



The occurrence of Ward's Blackbird within our limits is very 

 doubtful. 



Major Lloyd includes it in his list of the Birds of the Concan. 



