Correspondence.



333



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



THE ORANGE-HEADED GROUND THRUSH (GEOCICHLA

CITRINA) AS AN AVIARY BIRD.


Sir,—I n answer to Miss Hawke’s enquiry, it seems to me that these

Thrushes are very fairly hardy when once acclimatized. A pair lived

in one of my aviaries all through last winter, and remained a great deal

out of doors, although by flying through the open window into the

roosting-house, where there are hot pipes, they could find a warmer

temperature. Of course they require plenty of shelter in the shape of

fir-branches, or living shrubs, etc. They are most beautiful songsters.


They require a good insectivorous food, and are all the better for

tit-bits in the way of fruit, cockroaches, etc. They are very fond of

cut-up grapes.


Timid at first, they gradually quiet down and finall}' become quite

bold, as can be seen in the specimens in the Western Avaries at the London

Zoological Gardens.


I have two true pairs and an odd male. The hens are not so easy

to obtain. HUBERT D. ASTLEY.



SEESEE PARTRIDGES.


Sir, —In your last issue Mr. Ogilvie-Grant calls in question some

remarks of mine re the Egyptian form of Hey’s Partridge.


For the benefit of other systematists, who may be working on the

group, the facts are these:


A. cholmleyi, which was described from near Suakim, differs from

A. heyi in lacking the white forehead and lores and in being much darker

on the head, mantle and breast.


Specimens from the Mokattam Hills, near Cairo, resemble A.

ehohnleyi in the absence of the white on the forehead and lores, but in other

respects they are indistinguishable from A. heyi. A careful examination of

\ series of the latter from Palestine and Arabia shows the amount of

■Hie white to be variable, and in one specimen from Palestine the white

yas entirely absent and this specimen was indistinguishable from Cairo

xamples.


Under these circumstances there is no alternative but to consider

specimens from the Mokattam Hills as A. heyi, with which they agree in

general colour and more nearly approach geographically.


J. L. BonhoYE.



