MEEULIN^. 523 



359. Merula nigropileus, Lafr. 



Turdus apud Lafresnaye — Belanger, Voy-dans L'Inde — 

 Blyth Cat. 949 — M. brachypus, Blyth— Jerdon, 2nd Suppl. 

 Cat. 83 bis — HoRSr., Cat. 657 (in part) — Kasturi, H.—Poda palisa, 

 Tel. 



The Black-capped blackbird. 



Descr. — Male, head, "with the lores, cheeks and nape, deep black; 

 back, rump, wings and tail, dark blackish, or fuscous-ashy, tinged 

 with brown on the interscapulars ; chin blackish : neck, all round to 

 the nape (contrasting there strongly with the black of the crown) ; 

 and the lower-parts brownish-ashy, paler on the belly, and passing 

 to white on the vent ; under tail-coverts mingled white and ashy. 



Bill, eyelids, and gape, orange-yellow ; legs brownish-yellow ; 

 i rides brown. Length 9^ inches ; wing not quite 5 ; tail 3^ ; tarsus 

 ly%; bill at front j%. 



The female differs in being altogether paler, the white of the 

 vent spreading over more of the abdominal region, and the cap 

 being dusky-brown. The tail is quite square, and the wings reach 

 to less than two inches from the end of the tail. The color of this 

 species fades very much in dried specimens, the black changing to 

 dusky brown. 



This Blackbird is found, occasionally, throughout the greater 

 part of the South of India, in the plains during the cold weather 

 only ; but is a permanent resident on the hilly regions of the south, 

 at a moderate elevation. 



It is found in Coorg, Wynaad, and other parts of the Western 

 Ghats; also on the Eastern Ghats of Nellore, and in some of the 

 hio-her table-lands in Central India, as in Bustar and Jalna. I 

 have killed it in my own garden, at Nellore in the Carnatic ; at 

 Tellicherry, and other places at low elevation. I never saw it on 

 the Neilgherries. 



Like other Blackbirds, it feeds much on the ground on snails, 

 soft insects, and occasionally on fruit. At Nellore, I found that it 

 lived almost entirely on the pretty Helix histrialh, so common in 

 hedcre-rows in the Carnatic. I heard its song at Tellicherry towards 

 the end of the cold weather, but only very early in the morning, 



