18 ROCK-THRUSH. 
the Carpathians eastward it breeds in Greece, Turkey, Southern 
Russia, Asia Minor, Persia, Turkestan, Southern Siberia, Mongolia, 
and North China ; its migrations extending to the Gambia on the 
west coast of Africa, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and Southern Arabia ; 
also to Tibet, Northern India, and Upper Burma. 
The nest is placed in a hole among rocks, vineyard-walls, forti- 
fications or ruins, and occasionally in a tree-stump, Moss, roots, 
and dried grass—without any clay—with a finer lining of bents, are 
the materials employed ; and the 4-5 eggs are pale greenish-blue, 
sometimes slightly speckled with light brown: measurements 1 in. 
by ‘75 in. Two broods are often reared in the year, incubation com- 
mencing early in May ; and the parents display considerable anxiety 
when the nest is approached. The Rock-Thrush has a sweet and 
varied song, and, being also an excellent mimic, is highly esteemed 
as a cage-bird. During courtship the male from time to time rises 
singing into the air, then drops down almost vertically, and travels 
for some distance along the rocks. In fact all the Rock-Thrushes 
in their. mode of nesting and in many of their actions resemble the 
Wheatears or Chats,.thus forming a link between these and the true 
Thrushes, from which they differ in the comparative shortness of the 
leg and tail. ‘The food consists of earth-worms, snails, insects and 
their larvae, and wild berries. 
The adult male has the head, neck, and throat greyish blue, 
passing into blackish-blue on the upper back ; a white patch covers 
the centre of the back and dorsal scapulars; wings dark brown; 
lower back bluish-slate, mottled with grey ; tail-feathers chestnut, 
the two centre ones chiefly brown ; under parts bright chestnut ; 
bill black ; legs and feet brown. Length 7°5 in.; wing to end of 
the third and longest primary 4°75 in., the bastard primary being 
very small. In winter the white patch is less conspicuous, and the 
feathers have lighter margins. The young male, late in September, 
is much mottled with light brown and slate-grey on the upper parts, 
and has no white patch on the back; wing-feathers and coverts 
broadly tipped with buffish-white ; breast and abdomen chestnut, 
barred with black, and with broad whitish edges which gradually 
wear off. The female is mottled ash-brown above, with but little grey 
about the head and back; chin and throat whitish; lower parts 
orange-buff marbled with brown ; tail chestnut. 
The Blue Rock-Thrush (Monticola cyanus) has been erroneously 
recorded as having occurred at Westmeath in Ireland ; for complete 
refutation of the statement, see ‘The Zoologist,’ 1880, p. 67. 
