526 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



pale blue-green, with numerous light brown spots. It is occa- 

 sionally caged in the N. W. Ptovinces, and Blyth has kept speci- 

 mens for years in Calcutta. He tells me that it is sometimes, 

 though rarely, captured in Lower Bengal. 



The next species are allied to the M. torquata of Europe, and 

 with it, too, have been separated under the name of Thoracocmcla, 

 which, however, I shall not adopt as a genus, 



362. Merula albocincta, Eotle. 



111. Him. Bot., pi. 8, f. 3— T. albicollis, Royle— T. collarls, 

 SoREL — Blyth, Cat. 950— Horsf., Cat. 276— M. nivicollis, 

 Hodgson. 



The White-collared Ouzel. 



Descr. — Male, dingy black, slightly glossed above, and dull 

 beneath ; chin, throat, fore-neck, and wide collar round the nape 

 and hind-neck, a somewhat dingy white ; feathers of the vent white- 

 shafted. 



The female is dusky-brown, paler beneath ; the throat white, with 

 some dusky shafts, and a light greyish brown collar. 



Bill and orbits deep yellow ; legs dingy yellow ; irides dark 

 brown. Length 11 inches; wing of; tail 4^; bill at front |; tarsus 

 If. The tail is slightly rounded. 



The White-collared or Himalayan Ring-ouzel is found through- 

 out the Himalayas, but, generally, at a greater elevation than the 

 last species. I only saw it, myself, at Tongloo in Sikhim, 10,000 

 feet high, in the month of A})ril, and heard its song there. In 

 winter it descends lower, but it is not a common bird near 

 Darjeeling. 



363. Merula castanea, Gould. 



p. Z. S., 1835— Blyth Cat. 951— Horsf., Cat. 277— Gray 

 Gen. of Birds, pi. 56 — Turd, rubrocanus, Hodgson. 



The Grey-headed Ouzel. 



Descr. — Male, head, neck and throat, cinerascent- white, or 

 greyish, dark and brownish on the crown, albescent on the throat 

 and fore-neck ; the rest of the plumage of a light chesnut-bay 



