MONTICOLA cyana. 461 



An immature male in my collection, shot in March in Ceylon, appears to be in the next stage to the adult dress. The 

 blue plumage of the upper surface is intermingled with brown pale-tipped feathers, principally on the head and 

 hind neck ; the wing-coverts, shorter tertials, and upper tail-coverts are tipped with white ; the primaries and 

 secondaries are tipped pale ; under surface pale blue, lightest on throat ; the chest-feathers are brown terminally, 

 their extreme tips being fulvous ; the feathers of the breast and lower parts are tipped whitish. 



After the next moult the white edgings in this bird would disappear, and it would be in the dull blue brown-edged 

 plumage of the adult winter dress. 



Obs. The first writer on Indian ornithology who drew attention to the Blue Rock-Thrushes of the country was 

 Col. Sykes, who described the species found in it as distinct, under the title of P. pandoo, alleging that it differed 

 from the European bird in its smaller size, slighter form, brighter caerulean tint, want of orange eyelids and white 

 tips to the feathers. As can be seen at a glance, however, these were individual peculiarities ; and on further 

 acquaintance with the species in India, Sykes's name relapsed into a synonym for the European bird, as did also, 

 some years later, the P. longirostris of Blyth, founded on a Cashmere specimen. 



It will not be necessary, in a local work such as this, to investigate the vexed question of the validity or otherwise 

 of the eastern species, M. solitaria, a partly rufous form of the present. The subject has been ably treated by 

 Messrs. Sharpe and Dresser in the ' Birds of Europe,' and by Mr. Hume in ' Stray Feathers.' It will suffice to 

 state the case, and refer my readers to the exhaustive researches of these authors, should they wish to judge for 

 themselves in the matter. Erom Eastern Bengal, through Burmah and Tenasserim, to the easternmost parts of 

 China it is found that the males of the Blue Rock-Thrushes inhabiting that quarter of Asia assume a plumage 

 which, in its perfect state, consists of a deep chestnut-colour from the breast to the under tail-coverts ; they pass 

 into this dress from the immature stage of the spring following their first moult, in which the blue feathers of the 

 upper surface are pale-edged, and those of the throat dark -tipped ; during the time this plumage is being acquired 

 immature specimens are met with in every degree of advancement to the rufous coloration, while also mature 

 examples, with a uniform blue upper plumage, are to be seen in every degree of diminution from the rufous dress — 

 some having, for instance, only a small portion of the breast or abdomen thus coloured, while others may have no 

 sign of it, except on the under tail-coverts, proving that the bird passes into the rufous stage, and then out of it 

 as it gets fully adult. This character is not found in the females, for Mr. Hume can find no trace of it in a large 

 series collected from Spain to Amoy. 



It seems reasonable, I think, to assign the eastern form to the rank of a local race or subspecies, as in it alone, and not 

 in the western, is found this peculiarity of coloration in the male bird. 



Distribution. — The Blue Rock-Thrush is a migratory straggler to the hills of Ceylon, probably coming 

 thus far south only during those years which witness an unusual stream to the Nilghiri hills and other 

 elevated portions of Southern India. I have but to record two examples, both shot by a gentleman of the 

 planting community who interests himself much in the birds of the island — Mr. Thos. Farr, of Maskeliya. 

 The first was obtained in the vicinity of Kadugannawa during November 1872, and the second (one of a pair) 

 on the Galloway-Knowe Estate, Nilambe, in March 1875 ; both were shot frequenting boulders beneath high 

 precipices. This part of the Central Province, lying as it does to the westward of Kandy, is a district where 

 an occasional migrant from India to our hills would naturally first lodge ; but there are still more likely 

 localities in the Kurunegala and Matale hills, where future research may prove that it locates itself during its 

 short stay. That it does not wander far from those spots which are suited to its habits, and in which it first 

 arrives, is evident on the testimony of one or two gentlemen who have described to me a bird, which can be no 

 other than this species, frequenting the rocks in the same estate for a whole season. One of these instances 

 occurred in the Knuckles, and another very close to where the first example above recorded was shot. 



This Thrush is found throughout the whole of India in winter, arriving, according to Jerdon, about 

 October, and retiring, again in April. Regarding its distribution in the south, he writes that it is common in 

 the Nilghiris in open and rocky ground, more rare in the Carnatic, very common in the Deccau and Central 

 India, and abundant along the northern portion of the west coast, being likewise found in N.W. India, 

 Cashmere, and the N.W. Himalayas. Additional evidence as to its localization in India is afforded by the 

 writings of naturalists in ' Stray Feathers ' : Mr. Bourdillon says it visits the Travancore hills in small numbers ; 

 Mr. Fairbank remarks that it leaves the Deccan in March, and Khandala at the end of April. Mr. Ball writes 

 that it is found near most of the large rivers in Chota Nagpur, and that he procured it in Singhbhum, Sirguja, 

 and Hazaribagh. It is found throughout the Mt.-Aboo and Guzerat districts ; and in Sindh, Mr. Hume writes, 



