G2 FIRST LIST OF THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH KONKAN. 



354,— -Geocichla cyanotis, Jard and Selb. 



Bankot. I Dapuli. Devrukh. 



Anjanvel. Khed. 



Peve. Savant Vadi. 



Guhagar. 



Malvan. I 



Common in gardens and scrub jungle throughout the tract. 

 Breeds during the rainy months. The nests, which I have 

 not taken myself, have been described to me by Mr. A. Jardine 

 of Dapuli, who has collected a large number of these Thrushes' 

 eggs, as follows : — " The nest is made of roots, twigs, and grass, 

 with a good deal of mud. The egg cavity is about five and half 

 inches in diameter, and from two to three inches deep. The nest 

 is generally placed in the fork of a tree low down. The highest 

 I ever saw was about fifteen feet from the ground in a kinjal 

 tree, but they are mostly found in mango trees. When the 

 Thrushes have young, they will not let anyone go near the 

 nest, but come flying at you, and peck like fun." The eggs 

 vary greatly in colour and markings, presenting two or three 

 very distinct types. 



355.— Geocichla citrina, Lath. 



Amongst a lot of skins from Ratnagiri and Burmah, which 

 Dr. J. Armstrong kindly gave me, I found a single specimen 

 of G. citrina. It was not ticketed, but the sex and date were 

 endorsed on the paper cone in which it was wrapped. From 

 the date (5th January 1878) the specimen must have been 

 got somewhere in the Ratnagiri district, where Dr. Armstrong 

 Avas then working, unless by accident the cover has been 

 changed. As G. citrina occurs at Amherst, whence several of 

 the birds in the same box had been collected, 1 at first thought 

 it possible that some mistake had been made. A few days 

 afterwards, however, I met Dr. Armstrong, and he assured me 

 that he had got both G. cyanotis and G. citrina, while in the 

 Ratnagiri district, though he could not remember the exact 

 localities, and further that he had never got a single specimen 

 of citrina at Amherst. There can, therefore, be no doubt as to 

 the occurrence of this species in the South Konkan. It must, 

 however, be very rare. I have never seen it myself, nor does 

 Mr. Fairbank appear to have got it anywhere on the western 

 Ghat range from Khandalla to Goa, nor is it entered in Messrs. 

 Davidson and Wenden's list. On the other hand, its occurrence 

 in ihe Konkan is noted in a list* compiled by Major J. H. 

 Lloyd. 



* Natural History of the Konkan. Printed at the Government Central Press, 

 Bombay, 1876. 



