THE



179



Bvicultural flfoa$a3me,


BEING THE JOURNAL OF THE


AVICU LTURAL SOCIETY.



New Series .— VOL. II. — No. 6. —All rights reserved.



APRIL, 1904.



THE WHITE-THROATED GROUND-THRUSH.


Geocichla cyanonotus,* (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. V. p. 172).


Geocichla cyanonota (Hand-list IV. p. 132).


By Reginald Phillipps.


At page 147 of Vol. V. of the British Museum Catalogue

of Birds, Mr. Seebohm commences the Subfamily of the

Turdin^E with the genus Geocichla, and remarks:—“ The genus

Geocichla comprises a well-defined group of forty f Thrushes,

which may be distinguished as Ground-Thrushes. They are

characterized by having the basal portion of the outside web of all

the secondaries and of many of the primaries white, occasionally

tinted with buff, but abruptly defined from the brown of the rest

of the quills. The axillaries are parti-coloured, the basal half

being white, and the terminal half black, slate-grey, or brown.

Most of the under wing-coverts are similarly parti-coloured, but

the relative position of the colours is reversed, the white portion

being on the terminal half. This genus is connected with the

genus Turdus through T. viscivorous £ and T. viustelinus §.


“ So far as I have been able to ascertain, the young in first

plumage of every species in this genus are spotted on the back

and breast; and I am not aware that the adult of any species has

ascutellated tarsus, though traces of it are to be found in young



* Geocichla cyanonotus was unfortunately printed on our plate before the alteration

in the Hand-list to cyanonota came under notice.


+ Others have since been discovered.


} The Mistle Thrush.



$ The Wood Thrush of North America.



