THE



101



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. IV.—No 4 —All rights reserved. FEBRUARY, 1913.



THE MEXICAN PIED GROUND THRUSH.


Cieocichla pinicola (Sclater).


By Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.


I believe I am possibly the first to possess living specimens

of this Thrush in Europe.


A pair was sent me from Germany in the autumn of 1911,

and these birds moulted and were extremely healthy, while in the

summer of 1912 they were killed through being given unclean

gentles, which at the same time were the cause of the death of a

fine pair of American Bluebirds with their one young one, which had

left the nest. Such carelessness and neglect of proper care will, I

trust, be a lesson to my bird-keeper, whom I had actually warned

of the danger.


The Pied Ground Thrush is not nearly so active a bird as his

near relative, the Orange-headed (Cieocichla citrina), neither have I

ever heard it sing.


My pair would sit in a lethargic way, and became too fat in

consequence ; and when they did fly, they flew heavily, although in

perfect plumage. Their legs are not so long as in most of the

Geocichlge, and to call them Ground Thrushes seems to me a mis¬

nomer, for that is just the place where they do not seem to be at

their ease; they were always perching when they could.


They uttered two notes, one a sharp squeak, which seemed to

be a note of warning or alarm ; the other a much more melodious

one, sounding like a railway-guard’s whistle blown softly and shortly.


They are Thrushes which seem naturally tame, for I have



