520 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



the eggs, three or four in number, are dull greenish-white, speckled, 

 blotched, and spotted with rufous. 



Bonaparte, in his Conspectus, includes in this genus, Merula 

 castanea and M. nestor of Gould, the former Indian, and the latter 

 Australian; but I think that these rank much better with the 

 Blackbird group. 



The next two birds, which I place together, are intermediate 

 between the Ground-thrushes and the Blackbirds, the males being 

 black and white and the females more or less olive-brown above. 

 To this type, Bonaparte has given the name of Cichloselys, of which 

 Turdus cardis, Tern., is the type. Hodgson, however, appears 

 previously to have named the group Turdulus (as a division of 

 Oreocincla), with Turdus Wardii as the type. As these two forms 

 appear to me to be the same, I shall adopt Hodgson's name. 



Gen. Turdulus, Hodgson. 



Syn. Cicldoselys, Bonap. 



Char. — Bill rather short, something like that of Geocichla, 

 generally yellow ; tarsus rather short. Males coloured black and 

 white ; females dingy olive or brown. Otherwise as in Mtrula. 



357. Turdulus Wardii, Jekdon. 



Turdus apud Jerdon, 111. Ind. Orn., pi. 8 — 2nd Suppl. Cat. 

 84 bis — Blyth, Cat. 953 — Horsf., Cat. 658 — Zoothera melano- 

 leuca, Hartlaub — T. micropus and T. picoides, Hodgson. 

 Ward's Pied-Blackbird. 



D^scr. — Male, above with the whole head and neck black ; eye- 

 streak, a patch on the shoulders of the wings, tips of all the coverts, 

 especially the medial coverts, white; tertiaries and secondaries 

 also tipped white, the latter slightly, and the primaries narrowly 

 edo-ed with the same ; upper tail-coverts also tipped ; tail with the 

 central feathers slijihtly white-tipped, the rest of the feathers suc- 

 cessively more broadly so, but chiefly on the inner webs, and 

 increasing in amount to the outermost, which has the inner web 

 white for two-thirds of its length ; the web black nearly to the tip. 



The female is pale brownish above ; the eye-streak, tips of the 

 wing-coverts and of the tertiaries, fulvous-white; upper tail-coverts 



