ORD. IJVSESSOHES, 



FAM. MEEULID^. 



GEN. PETROCINCLA. 



PLATE XX. 



PETROCINCLA PANDOO. Sykes. 



INDIAN BLUE ROCK THRUSH. 



Synon. — P. Maal— Sykes — (the female.) 



I affixed the name of Petrocincla Manillensis to the drawing of this bird, as Mr. 

 Blyth had suggested to me the probability of its being that species, with which I agreed at 

 once, the more readily that in Lesson's Traite P. Manillensis is mentioned as from India. 

 Mr. Blyth however subsequently obtained the real Manillensis from Lu9onia, and found 

 that our present is a distinct tho' very closely allied species, and accordingly Sykes' name 

 will stand good. A third allied species, from Tenasserim and Darjeeling, Mr. Blyth has 

 designated P. affinis. Swainson's excellent name Petrocincla will have to give way to 

 Monticola. 



The Indian blue rock thrush is extended over most of the continent of India, and 

 has most probably a still more extended geographical distribution, as it is migratory here, 

 retiring to the north to breed at the approach of the hot weather. Towards the south of 

 the peninsula it is very rare. I have only seen it at all common on the Neilgherries — and 

 now and then a single stray specimen on some rocky and jungly hill in the Carnatic. In 

 the Deccan however it becomes more abundant,and there, chiefly,almost exclusively frequents 

 the old walls and remains of forts so common there, eveiy village however small being 

 surrounded by a high mud wall. On two or three occasions I observed it in Cantonment 

 on the top of a stable or out-building. Mr. Elliot in his M.S.S. notes on Indian Birds, from 

 which I drew much information in the compilation of my Catalogue of Indian Birds, men- 



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