On the Pied Rock-Thrush.



279



British hidia ; Birds : “ Bill and legs black ; iris brown ; mouth

flesh-colour; claws black ; length about 6 in. ; tail 2’8 ; wing3 - 2 ;

tarsus ’65 ; bill from gape 7.”


The Verditer breeds during the summer in the Himalayas

up to 8,000 feet or more, and descends to the plains in winter.

Although so strikingly and beautifully clad, it is far from being

conspicuous amongst the green foliage of its native haunts. I

have never observed it wild except in the vicinity of trees.


I11 confinement, the Verditer is a delightful pet. It has a

soft sweet song, something like that of our Hedge Accentor. I

have kept three pairs in the same enclosure along with smaller

birds, but never found it quarrelsome or aggressive. It thrives

on any good insectivorous mixture, supplemented by live food ;

indeed, it might be almost called hardy.


The usual Flycatcher characteristics are well developed in

the Verditer, viz., weak feet, rendering walking more or less an

effort; horizontal hairs extending from the forehead beyond the

nostrils ; non-gregarious habits, the birds being found singly or

in pairs.


As our worthy Editor—at whose request this paper is

written—remarked to me several years ago in India, the Niltava

and the Verditer might appropriately be called the “Oxford”

and “Cambridge” Flycatcher respectively.



THE PIED ROCK-THRUSH.


Monticola saxatilis.


(Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. V., p. 313.)


By Reginald Phillipps.


The presence of two fledgeling Pied Rock-Thrushes in my

aviary this summer, strong on the wing and fully weaned, even

from mealworms, must be my excuse for “rushing” into print

once more. Young of this species have been obtained from time

to time by some of onr members, but I am not aware that pre¬

viously any have been reared,—I mean reared according to the

standard of the Avicultural Society (see p. 20), a standard which

it is greatly to be hoped will be fully maintained and upheld, and

not allowed to lapse into a farce and a comedy—but that is by

the way.



