Genus MYIOPHONUS*. 

 Bill rather broad at the base, the tip somewhat lengthened and much decurved ; rictal 

 bristles much developed. Wings rounded, the 1st quill considerably lengthened, exceeding the 

 shortest secondary ; the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graduated, and the 5th the longest. Tail-feathers lax. 



Tarsus long. Toes rather short. 



MYIOPHONUS BLIGHI. 



(BLIGH'S WHISTLING THRUSH.) 

 (Peculiar to Ceylon.) 



Arrenga bligld, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 444, pi. xix. 



Ad. sordide cyanescenti-niger, uropygio et supracaudalibus rufescenti-brunneo lavatis : alis eaudaque nigris, pennis 

 omnibus dorsi colore extus marginatis : tectricibus alarum minimis lastius cyaneis, plagam conspicuain exliibentibus : 

 pileo toto, capitis lateribus et gutture toto nigerrimis : corpore reliquo subtus dorso concolori, crisso et subcau- 

 dalibus rufescenti-brunneo lavatis : subalaribus pectori concoloribus : rostro et pedibus nigris : iride brunnea. 



Juv. brunneus, supra saturatior brunneus, subtus rufescentior : frontis, gutturis et pectoris plumis flavescenti-brunneo 

 medialiter notatis : plaga cyanea alari vix indicata. 



Adult male and female. Length 8 - to 8'5 inches ; wing 4-2 to 4'4 ; tail 3"1 to 3-5 ; tarsus 1"4 to l - 5 ; mid toe and 

 claw 1-25 ; bill to gape 1-25. 



Iris brown ; bill, legs, and feet black. 



Entire head, throat, and hind neck coal-black (the feathers of the chin with spinous shafts), changing into dark eajrulean 

 blue on the interscapulars, back, scapulars, wing-coverts, chest, and breast, the basal portion of the feathers of 

 these parts black ; least wing-coverts and point of wing bright smalt-blue ; wings and tail brownish black ; quills 

 obscurely edged with blue ; upper tail-coverts and basal portion of rectrices edged chocolate-brownish ; belly, 

 lower flanks, and under tail-coverts edged with a lighter shade of the same, the basal portions of the feathers 

 brown. 



Female. The only example of this sex which has as yet been obtained was, Mr. Bligh informs me, similar to the male, 

 but had the wing-spot lighter in colour, but at the same time of a brighter tint than in the male. 



Young. An immature bird, figured in P. Z. S. 1872, pi. xix. fig. 2, is, writes Mr. Holdsworth, " brown, darker 

 on the upper surface and more rufous below, the feathers of the forehead, throat, and breast centred with yellow- 

 brown, and there is an indication of blue on the carpal joint.'' 



Obs. This interesting Thrush is allied to M. cyaneus of Java, and forms one of the most noteworthy instances of the 

 connexion, as regards some families, of the Ceylonese with the Javan avifauna. The South-Indian species 

 (M. horsfieldi) has not nearly so much affinity with ours as the Javan bird. Blyth, with his wonted perspicuity, 

 suggested, in his paper on Ceylonese birds (Ibis, 1867, p. 312), that M. horsfieldi, or a specialized representative of 

 it, ought some day to be found in the island ; and the value of his prophecy has been realized in the discovery of 

 our handsome Whistling Thrush. 



M. cyaneus is a larger bird than the present species. An adult male in the British Museum measures 5-8 and a female 

 5-4 inches in the wing; tail 3-0, tarsus 1-6, bill to gape 1*4. 



* This genus, on account of its rounded wing and lengthened 1st primary, almost merits being placed in a separate 

 subfamily. Jerdon, indeed, places it in the Myiotherincs, among which, however, he includes the Wrens and the Pittas, 

 the latter not appertaining at all to the Thrushes. It will suffice, therefore, for the purposes of this work to keep 

 Myiophonus among the Thrushes, particularly as Mr. Seebohm is now studying this group of birds with a view to giving 

 the world a new classification of them in the 5th volume of the ' Catalogue of Birds.' 



