1 74 SIMALIN.E. 



The Black-throated Thrush only occurs as a cold weather visi- 

 tant to Northern Sind. I found it very common between 

 Kandahar and Q uetta during the time of its migration. 



SUB-FAMILY, Simalinae. 



Legs and feet stout and large ; bill various in form and length, 

 almost always compressed, usually notched ; wings short and 

 rounded ; tail largish, graduated ; plumage often lax. 



GENUS, Pyctorhis, Gmelin. 



Bill rather short, strong, deep, arched, entire ; rictus strongly 

 bristled ; orbits nude ; wings rather short and feeble, fourth and 

 fifth quills longest ; tail long, graduated ; legs and feet stout and 

 large ; claws large, moderately curved. 



Pyctorhis sinensis, Gmelin. 



385. Jerdon's Birds of India, VoL II, p. 15 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. III. p. 471 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 

 IX, p. 399 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 132 ; 

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



THE YELLOW-EYED BABBLER, 



Length, 6'5 ; expanse, 7 to 7 '8 ; wing, 2'4 to 2'8 ; tail, 3 to 3'5 ; 

 bill at front, 0'45 ; tarsus, 09 to I'l. 



Bill black, with the nostrils deep yellow ; irides dark brown, 

 with an outer circle of buff ; orbits bright orange ; legs yellow. 



Above clear red-brown, rufous or cinnamon color on the wings, 

 and the tail obsoletely banded with dusky ; lores and all the, 

 lower plumage white; lower surface of wings and tail dusky- 

 cinereous. 



The Yellow-eyed Babbler is a common permanent resident 

 throughout the district, breeding from June to August ; the nest 

 is beautifully made, of a deep cup-shape, and is placed in a slender 

 fork of a bush or small tree ; sometimes it is suspended between 

 stalks of growing corn or reeds ; it is composed of grass, inter- 

 laced with vegetable fibre and lined with fine grass ; the eggs, 

 four or five in number, vary much in shape, size and color but 

 they are generally rather broad ovals, averaging 073 in length by 

 about 0*59 inches in breadth. 



Some eggs have a pinkish-white ground, thickly mottled and 

 speckled with bright deep brick-dust red ; others have the pinkish- 

 white ground, but are boldly, though sparingly, blotched with 

 patches and streaks of blood or bright brick-red, interspersed with 

 a few inky-purple spots or clouds ; between these two types every 

 variety is met with ; the eggs are in general finely glossed. 



Pyctorhis griseigularis, Hume. 



Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 132. 



