THE



349



Avicultural Magazine,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICULTURAL SOCIETY.



Third Series .— Vol. IV.—No. 12 .—All rights reserved. OCTOBER, 1913.


THE BLUE-HEADED ROCK THRUSH.


Petrocincla cinchlonjncha.


By Hubert D. Astley.


This is perhaps the most beautiful of all the known Rock-

Thrushes, and is an inhabitant of different parts of the Himalayas,

frequenting rocky and stony districts. This bird is rather less in

size than the European P. saxatilis, and is a glorified edition of the

latter. In captivity it is naturally tame.


I have two males, but the one hen bird unfortunately died

in May of this year during my absence in Italy.


The true pair was imported by Major Perreau, and the single

male by Major Boyd Horsbrugh. When the new feathers are

assumed in August and September, each one on the back is broadly

edged with light brown, which will no doubt wear off before the

spring, leaving the mantle more uniform blackish-blue.


These Rock Thrushes have a very swift and graceful flight.

When let out of their cages in a room, they will dart to the top of a

cupboard or picture-frame, the white spot on the wings showing

conspicuously. Any idea of a move being made by me to the meal¬

worm-box will bring one down with swift and silent wings to my side.


The feathers of the head have a more powdered appearance

immediately after the moult, becoming purer cobalt blue later on, but

I have yet to discover whether these Rock-Thrushes undergo an

almost complete vernal moult, as does P. saxatilis and also apparently

P. erythrogaster.


The song, as far as I have heard it, resembles that of other



