The Celebean Ground Thrush.



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THE CELEBEAN GROUND THRUSH.


Geocichla erythronota (Sclater).


By HUBEKT D. ASTLEY.


This extremely handsome Ground Thrush was discovered by

Dr. Alfred Russell Wallace (who has only lately passed away) near

Makassar in the island of Celebes, to which it seems to be confined,

occurring in both the southern and the northern parts. Dr. Meyer,

who spent some months in Celebes, in 1870 and 1871, states that

he observed this fine species a few miles from Menado on the way

to Lotta in February and March, at Tumumpat near Menado in

March, and in the churchyard of the Europeans at the latter place,

from April to July. It lives chiefly on the ground, and is very shy.


In the Ibis of 1859, p. 113, we find the following :—“Another

“ interesting bird in Mr. Wallace’s last Macassar collection is a

“ curiously marked Thrush of the section Geocichla, allied to G.

“ interpres, of Java and Sumatra, but having the whole back as well

“ as the head chestnut-red. For this bird, of which only two examples

“ were sent, we propose the name Geocichla erythronota. From

“ Lombok Mr. Wallace has transmitted the true Geocichla interpres .”


It seems that the female resembles the male in colour, but I

should imagine that as in others of the group, the male would be

distinguishable by more purity of colouring, as for instance in the

case of the fairly well known G. citrina —the Orange-headed Ground

Thrush ; where the back of the female is not nearly so pure a grey

as her mate’s. The adult bird has the general colour of the upper

parts orange-chestnut; lores white; eye-stripe black; etc. I will not

weary readers with an elaborate and detailed description, suffice it

to say that except for the forehead, crown of head, back of neck,

back, and upper tail coverts, which are, as I have said, orange-

chestnut, this Thrush is black and white, as seen in the illustration.

A fine distribution and rpixture of colouring, a bird much to be

desired, especially if it be as melodious a songster as the Orange¬

headed. Bye-the-bye! why “orange-headed,” considering the whole

of the underparts are conspicuously that colour ?


There is a good coloured figure of G. erythronota in Seebohm’s

‘Monograph of the Turdidae ”—Yol. I. It is a pity that naturalists.



